I nvesting Competition at UP enn
Lower S i x th Reading T rip to D ublin
We had a busy and rewarding four days and the trip
was a wonderful fusion of literature, culture and
Irish history. Highlights included a visit to the Abbey
Theatre for a talk on Irish theatre from a Trinity
College lecturer, and the James Joyce Museum and
Tower in Sandycove where the opening of Ulysses is
set. This included a fascinating tour led by a guide, and
added depth to our understanding of the part of the
book that we had read.
The evenings were given over to discussion sessions
and student-led seminars on a range of Irish writers,
from pivotal figures such as Sean O’Casey to
contemporary female poets such as Paula Meehan.
How a Sevenoaks team came
fifth out of 1300 in a global
trading simulation
In December, Rohan Chaturvedi, Cameron Allan, Sam
Sandor, Rory O’Sullivan and I entered the Knowledge
at Wharton High School Investment Competition
with little knowledge of investing, or indeed the stock
market, but we felt that as Economics students we
had knowledge that could be applied.
We entered with the aim of improving our analytical,
teamwork and writing skills, so reaching the final in
Philadelphia seemed a far-flung aspiration.
guidance and felt ourselves total amateurs. We were
amazed when, two months later, we got the message
that we were one of 18 teams (and the first British
team in three years!) chosen for the global final, out of
a total of 1300, which took place at Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania.
Once we arrived, we had to give a presentation
covering a case study of a company we invested in,
an in-depth explanation of our 18-page dossier, and
a plan for the future. On our first day we had a series
of lectures at UPenn, in which we met a lot of the
other competitors from India, China, Norway, Brazil,
the US and Canada. The following day, we gave our
presentation before a judging panel, and though we
felt it went well, we were still not expecting success,
as we’d been extremely impressed by some of the
other presentations we’d seen. Incredibly, we won
third place in our region (Europe, North America and
South America), and placed fifth overall.
The competition involved partaking in a stock market
trading simulation, in which we were given $100,000
dollars to invest however we liked. We then wrote an
18-page explanation for our choices in this simulation.
We then spent our Sunday sightseeing in Philadelphia,
We based our picks on things we’d read in the news,
which brought a relaxing end to a trip that was
and we were really surprised to make $7000 in
phenomenally inspiring, if not also a little surreal.
just over a month, given the fact that we’d had no
Armed with copies of Joyce’s
Dubliners and a wealth of
texts by other Irish writers,
17 Lower Sixth students set off
to the Emerald Isle in search
of literary inspiration.
Kilmainham Gaol, where the leaders of the 1916
Easter Rising were imprisoned before being executed,
was a sombre location to visit but the tour around the
prison gave us a valuable insight into why it is such
an iconic place in the history of Ireland’s struggle for
independence. The courtyard where the leaders of
the rebellion were shot was particularly haunting.
We had previously studied some of the poems that
came out of the rebellion, so it made for an insightful
and moving trip.
The day had begun with a visit to the WB Yeats
exhibition, an excellent multimedia exhibition that
takes the visitor through all the different periods in
Yeats’s writing.
Our final day was taken up with a visit to Trinity
College and a journey back to the eighth century with
the Book of Kells. We were also able to visit the Old
Library with its imposing oak bookcases and three
million titles.
Feeling a little weary, but richer in spirit, it was time
to make our way back to the airport and the return
to reality.
Rachel Jung, Lower Sixth, and Anne Durnford
George Brindley, Lower Sixth
92
TRIPS AND ACTIVITIES
SEVENOAKS SCHOOL 2017-2018
93