Our Stock Is Rising: An Elementary Student’s Introduction to the Stock Market

By Gregory A. Powell

I spent the early years researching the topic. The goal was to teach them as I learned, and to stay one step ahead of my classes. I took them to see the experts at Key Bank and the Wright State University School of Business. As time went on, the experts came to us. The late Ellis Rowe (former VP, Mars, Inc.), and Theo Killion (former CEO, Zales) flew in from Jacksonville and Chicago respectively, just to share a few of their valuable hours for what they both found to be an invaluable experience.

This book is written by a teacher, for teachers. Unlike other books of its kind, this one’s not written by an expert in the field of investment financing. Quite frankly, I saw in this project, such a sense of urgency, that the need for it to be delivered by experts (whenever they became available), was outweighed by the need for it to be delivered in the here and now.

Our Stock Is Rising is a metaphor that speaks not just to the disenfranchised, but to all the little kids in all the neighborhoods outside New York’s famed Financial District. It says that we are not always too young. And that the things we are allowed to be challenged by in our youth, won’t be the things that deny us a place at the table, as adults.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886932027

Gregory A. Powell

Gregory A. Powell is a former A Better Chance (ABC) Scholar and graduate of The Peddie School in Hightstown, NJ. He is a retired, decorated U.S. Air Force Major and a 22-year veteran of teaching in Dayton Public Schools. In 2005, he was District Teacher of the Year, a state finalist in Ohio, and a Martha Holden Jennings Scholar. Mr. Powell is also a former Master Teacher with the Ohio Department of Education and former Senior STEM Fellow with the Dayton Regional STEM Center (DRSC). His “Compressed Air Vehicle” lesson plan gained national distribution on the DRSC website. He has published articles in Social Studies and the Young Learner in 2018 and 2021. Mr. Powell has also presented to national audiences, including; Symposium on Urban Teacher Education, Birmingham, AL (2011); Critical Questions in Education Conference, New Orleans, LA (2017); and Innovative Schools Summit, Atlanta, GA (2022). He holds a Master’s Degree from The Air Force Institute of Technology and certificates in teaching and educational supervision from the University of Dayton. Originally from Miami, FL, Mr. Powell now resides in Union, Ohio.

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About the Author

Gregory A. Powell is a former A Better Chance (ABC) Scholar and graduate of The Peddie School in Hightstown, NJ. He is a retired, decorated U.S. Air Force Major and a 22-year veteran of teaching in Dayton Public Schools. In 2005, he was District Teacher of the Year, a state finalist in Ohio, and a Martha Holden Jennings Scholar. Mr. Powell is also a former Master Teacher with the Ohio Department of Education and former Senior STEM Fellow with the Dayton Regional STEM Center (DRSC). His Compressed Air Vehicle lesson plan gained national distribution on the DRSC website. He has published articles in Social Studies and the Young Learner in 2018 and 2021. Mr. Powell has also presented to national audiences, including; Symposium on Urban Teacher Education, Birmingham, AL (2011); Critical Questions in Education Conference, New Orleans, LA (2017); and Innovative Schools Summit, Atlanta, GA (2022). He holds a Master’s Degree from The Air Force Institute of Technology and certificates in teaching and educational supervision from the University of Dayton. Originally from Miami, FL, Mr. Powell now resides in Union, Ohio.

Copyright Information ©

Gregory A. Powell 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

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Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Powell, Gregory A.

Our Stock Is Rising

ISBN 9798886932010 (Paperback)

ISBN 9798886932027 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023907531

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

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Acknowledgment

Lisa Enright (Wife) – From the first to the last chapter

Curtis Jefferson (Trusted friend) – Videographer extraordinaire

Theo Killion and Ellis Rowe (Childhood friends) – Shining examples

Dr. Anna Lyon (Trusted friend) – Expert editing and counsel

Anita Powell (Former spouse) – From this concept’s beginning

Anjela Powell (Daughter) – An inspiration that left us too soon

Derryk Powell (Son) – Through it all, doing it all; irreplaceable

Willie and Aleen Powell (Parents) – For love and wisdom passed down

Foreword

In 2018, I reconnected with Greg Powell, a person with whom I hadn’t spoken for almost 50 years. Greg and I met in the late 60’s as beneficiaries of the A Better Chance program, an organization that identifies underserved children of color from low-income families who demonstrate academic promise. Greg and I shared a number of qualities in common; we came from homes that were rich in love but economically challenged, we both had big dreams, and we both loved education and appreciated its power in transforming lives.

Over the next several years, we would meet in competition on the athletic fields of the private schools that we attended and while we competed athletically, we shared a deep appreciation of how fortunate we were to have the opportunity to change the trajectory of our lives and the lives of our families forever. We also understood that we were benefitting from a special experience that few kids with our backgrounds would ever get the chance to have.

That appreciation, and those experiences, created a bond between the two of us, so when Greg reached out in 2018 and asked me to speak to the class of young boys he was teaching in Dayton, Ohio, I said yes. I welcomed the opportunity to reconnect with my old friend, but I also was intrigued when Greg told me he was teaching the boys about the stock market. It wasn’t surprising that Greg’s lifelong commitment to education led to teaching, but the stock market…this, I had to see!

Inspiration for great ideas often comes from unusual places or because of unusual events. For Greg, that event happened when a number of his students skipped class to go be among the first people in line to buy a new release of Air Jordan basketball sneakers. In deciding whether to criticize the boys or search for a teachable moment, like all special teachers, he chose the latter.

The boys spent $150.00 on the Nike sneakers. What if, rather than buying the sneakers, the boys bought the company? In 2000, the boys could’ve purchased 30 shares of Nike for that $150.00 (selling for approximately $5.00 a share that year) which, in 2021, would be worth $4,500 (selling for approximately $150.00)! That insight led to Our Stock is Rising, a book that makes the stock market accessible to teachers, students, and anyone interested in learning