Williams Investment Society

The Washington Post’s Daniel de Vise writes about the C-school’s Williams Investment Society.

Read his article below, and more about the Williams Investment Society on its web site, http://wis.wlu.edu.

Donor's gift gives financial class unique opportunity to learn ins, outs of stock market

… one of a small number of schools in the nation devoting an entire seminar to investing, a topic more commonly taught as part of an economics or financial planning class.

Intriguing aspect: The most intriguing part, financial educators say, is that students will invest real money.

''You have to have real money involved in order to get the students to take it seriously,'' said Scott Hoover, adviser to the student investment club at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. ''If you can get the students to take it seriously, they can do wonders.''

At Washington and Lee, one of a growing number of universities that give students real dollars to invest, the club has $1.6 million at its disposal and has performed as well as the best professionals, Hoover said.