Schools

SAR glimpses life on Wall St

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Students of SAR High School’s AP Macroeconomics class had been plowing through a demanding college-level high school course and now, finally, they had the opportunity to apply their learnings in real life. As seniors in high school, on the brink of the next stages of their lives, their class trip to “Wall Street” gave many of them insight into their future careers.

At their first stop, the Wall Street Journal at NewsCorp in Midtown (pictured), financial journalist Greg Zuckerman discussed what it’s like to create the media that is read by millions of people every day.

Zuckerman was not interested in financial journalism until he randomly stumbled upon a job opportunity and took it. As a result of that experience, he told the students that if they’re not happy with their careers they should keep searching — because there is an opportunity out there that will perfectly suit them.

After a lunch break at Bravo Pizza, they visited a classmate’s mom at an investment bank. Their host explained how she works with investors to sell highly complex securities. The concepts she shared would not have been comprehensible to most of the students before taking the class.

They were also introduced to a research analyst who evaluates securities that are backed by mortgages. Such investments and factors which impact their values are related to what was taught in the AP Macroeconomics course, and students smiled when hearing familiar terms.

The last stop of was 30 Hudson Yards, the second tallest office tower in New York and North American headquarters of a large Scandinavian bank, where they heard from the head of investment banking. He spoke about his large clients in the Scandinavian seafood industry and the offshore oil-rig industry. He also taught the students a lesson about keeping people in their lives, sharing a story about a college friend who is now one of his clients.

“I found it really amazing that these people have some of the biggest jobs in the world, let alone on Wall Street, and they took time out of their jobs and days to help us,” remarked one of the students, Josh Labinsky-Fleischer.