I frequently engage with students and finance professionals in our community. Below are the examples of my community engagement:
High School Stock Trading Competition: In 2023, my colleague Dr. Schlosky and I, with support from our college, launched and ran the inaugural UIS High School Stock Trading Competition. We partnered with Rochester High School, recruited students in the 9th through 12th grades on a voluntary basis into a stock trading competition, and awarded the winners with cash prizes. Over the year, we expanded our competition into more schools. In 2025, we had around 250 high school students participating in our competition, and we awarded $1,250 to $250 to the winners (the first place to the fifth place).
School Visits: I had the opportunity to visit the following schools in our region as a guest lecturer/speaker. The topics I covered included financial literacy, personal finance, financial statements, trading stocks, and trading commodity futures. Ag Business, Adult Living, Consumer Ed, and Personal Finance were among the courses that I had the opportunity to guest-lecture in.
Lanphier High School (Springfield, IL)
Southeast High School (Springfield, IL)
Glenwood High School (Chatham, IL)
Franklin High School (Franklin, IL)
Taylorville High School (Taylorville, IL)
Black Hawk Elementary School (Springfield, IL)
Community Bank Case Study Competition: I worked with the Office of Engaged Learning and INB (privately held national bank based in Springfield, IL) to sponsor students to the Community Bank Case Study Competition. We sponsored two teams to the competition in 2023, and one of the teams made it to the second round. In 2024, we sponsored one team, which made to the second place in the nation.
Northwestern Mutual Competition: Last year, I worked with the local branch of Northwestern Mutual and launched a competition for my ECO 201 students. Students wrote commodity pitch reports that were evaluated by the Executive Vice President Chairman of Northwestern Mutual Investment Management Company (NMIMC). This opportunity allowed my students to be introduced to the practice of trading and writing research reports early in their program and to receive feedback from an industry professional.
CFA Institute Research Challenge: I sponsored two teams to the CFA Institute Research Challenge (one of the most prestigious global competitions in finance) during the 2022-2023 academic year. I paired our students with local industry partners from Teachers Retirement System of Illinois and Sikich Financial as part of this competition.