Semifinals-Bound for Investement Comp. Senior Play Taken Away

LILY FREILICH

The Wharton Global High School Investment Competition is an online investment simulation for high schoolers interested in finance. Teams of four to seven students from 1400 schools around the world compete in the competition.

Each team is assigned a client profile and tasked with creating a portfolio of stocks for them to reach longterm investment goals. The teams receive 10,000 dollars of virtual money to build its portfolio. Wharton sets the guidelines for hundreds of approved stocks and all trading is done through an online simulator. The first stage of the competition is to build a strong portfolio and the teams are judged by their strategies.

This is the third year that Ramaz has had teams enter the competition. This year a few teams of students, ranging from sophomores to seniors, entered the competition. The faculty advisor is Ms. Linda Lowry who teaches economics and has experience working on Wall Street. The teams worked tirelessly to put together and submit a portfolio report in just ten weeks, in addition to having school work and other extracurriculars.

This year, one Ramaz team, Blue Tide Capital, made it into the semifinals. Blue Tide Capital, which consists of juniors, is led by Fisher Angrist ’24 with members Jeremy Propp ’24, Jeremy Feder ’24, Liam Gomberg ’24, Amiel Low ’24, Philip-David Medows ’24, and Adrian Rosenfeld ’24. Seniors Ilan Puterman ’23 and Josh Todes ’23, whose team made it into the finals last year, have been helping Blue Tide Capital.

Additionally, another Ramaz team, Peace of Mind Capital, received an honorable mention despite not making it to the next round. Peace of Mind Capital consisted of only sophomores and was led by Aryeh Goldstein ’25. The members were Nathaniel Chetrit ’25, David Mahfar ’25, Bobby Sigoura ’25, Alex Sultan ’25, Jesse Rubinstein

’25, and Maya Puterman ’25. They were acknowledged as part of the top ten percent of all teams.

Team leader Angrist’s ’24 job entails formulating strategies and assigning roles to each team member for the work to get done on time. Angrist ’24 said, “The most valuable part of this experience so far is learning how to work as a team and be a leader. I’m learning that being a leader is not just doing everything but letting everyone work on tasks that highlight their strengths.” Faculty advisor, Ms. Lowry, provides the team guidance on how the competition works and how to act professionally. Ms. Lowry enjoys helping the teams and cheering them on. “I enjoy seeing the students being so enthusiastic and take so much pride in what they’ve been able to accomplish. It is a significant accomplishment to put together a well-crafted presentation and to come up with a video and to present it,” said Ms. Lowry.

After being selected to go to the semifinals, the next stage involves creating a video pitching their portfolio to the client. The team’s job is to talk them through their strategy, give an example of a stock and its profit through time and estimate future results.

If Blue Tide Capital’s video makes it to the next round the final step is to go to Wharton and present their strategy to a panel of judges and the client. The judges of the competition are people who work in finance, including asset managers and investment analysts.

Blue Tide Capital has worked around the clock to put together its report and their hard work has been acknowledged. The team members are learning skills that pertain to finance as well as how to work efficiently as a team. The Rampage wishes Blue Tide Capital good luck with the rest of the competition!

Burning Questions with Bennett

Phillip-David Meadows ’24 asked if PM Bennett prefers the American or Israeli political system, in which he responded: “I am yet to see a leader who says we have an amazing political system.” There needs to be a balance between representation and authoritarianism. “I think, while [the system] is far from perfect, it’s ok,” said PM Bennett.

“Should the diaspora Jewry have a voice in the government of Israel even though we are not citizens? What say should the diaspora Jews have on Israeli politics?” asked Olalla Levi ’23. PM Bennett believes that Israel is a state of its citizens and of all Jews in the world. He made an analogy of having two kippas: one for being PM of Israeli citizens, and one for all Jews in the world. While diaspora Jews should have input, it should not the same as Israeli citizens. Nonetheless, there should be an open dialogue, and “I hope Israel becomes a central part wherever you live,” said PM Bennett.

Mr. Cannon followed up by asking PM Bennett if he has a view on criticizing Israel, to which he responded that any relationship is full of imperfections and that criticizing is unuseful in general. Rather, constructive feedback is much better.

Elliot Davis ’23 asked what PM Bennett thinks should be done to increase interest in Americans in Israel. He answered that the best thing is to come to Israel and join the IDF, volunteer, or teach.

Lani Kahn ’23 asked if PM Bennett has ever felt disrespected in his leadership for being outwardly religious. Though he supports Jewish identity and loves Tanakh, he explained that he opposes religious law. For example, there is no law in Israel that prohibits driving on Yom Kippur, and PM Bennett believes that if this was written in a bill, people would drive out of spite because people don’t like to be forced to do things.

“Government should not pass religious law. Religion should be voluntary and natural and not forced by law,” said PM Bennett.

For returning students it is hard to forget last years’ senior production, Aladdin the Musical. Unsurprisingly, the senior play was a milestone last year, as it is every year. It was the first senior production following the pandemic, bringing hope to students that the tradition had not faded with the worldwide shut-down. This year’s senior class, being the last remains of the pre-covid Ramaz Upper School, understand that the Ramaz theater schedule typically ran as follows: a fall Musical, the musical Senior Production, and finally a spring drama. This year, the department suffered a late start while kicking off the year with a drama, Letters to Sala, and they plan to produce the musical picture, The Addams Family, for the spring. Unfortunately, this leaves no time for a senior production this year.

Abby Gurwitz ’23, an avid participant in past school plays, explains the situation: “I think it was mostly scheduling problems because of other things like the drama earlier in the year, and this musical [The Addams Family] now taking a longer time… We started [the fall play] late and it took a while, and now since they are doing the musical in the spring, the issue is that there really is not enough time to do two, because after Pesach you can’t do anything because of the Omer.” In order to have a senior play follow The Addams Family, the rehearsals and preparations would occur after Pesach, overlapping with the Omer. Hence, due to scheduling and timing, it is impossible to have a senior play this school year, while in the past the musical would have been possible as it would have occurred before Pesach.

Before Covid, theater was one of the most relevant and active extracurriculars at Ramaz. Sadly, the student body’s interest in the school’s play decreased dramatically since the pandemic. With this in mind, the administration made the decision to prioritize the school musical over the senior musical, in hopes to get more students involved. In response to the cancellation of the Senior production, many seniors have auditioned and been cast for roles in The Addams Family. It is not unusual for upperclassmen to be given the lead roles in school plays, and this year, that is primarily what happened. Overall, while the upcoming school musical is not officially a senior production, the students can definitely expect a senior-filled production.