Salt Lake City, UT – Two student teams from Beehive Science and Technology Academy’s Investment Club achieved outstanding results by finishing 2nd and 3rd place overall in the High School Division of the Utah Treasurer’s Investment Challenge (UTIC). Team members included Oskar Kapitonov, 10th grade, Leon Nguyen, 9th grade, Maksim Kapitonov, 8th grade, and Ivan Nguyen, 7th grade. UTIC is a hands-on stock market simulation where students manage a virtual investment portfolio over about 10 weeks. Participants are given $100,000 and use a real-time trading platform to buy and sell stocks, track market trends, and compete based on how well their portfolio performs. The Challenge is run by the Utah Office of State Treasurer in partnership with the Utah Financial Empowerment Coalition and is designed to mirror real-world investing while staying educational and accessible.
“What makes this challenge valuable isn’t just the competition, it’s the experience of making financial decisions in a realistic environment without real-world risk. For high school students, that matters a lot,” said Scott Colby, 8th and 10th grade Financial Literacy CTE (Career and Technical Education) and stock market club advisor at Beehive Science and Technology Academy. “It builds real financial literacy as students learn how markets work, what stocks represent, and how factors like news, earnings reports, and economic trends influence prices. That’s knowledge most adults wish they had learned earlier. It also develops critical thinking and decision-making because investing forces students to weigh risk vs. reward, analyze information, and adjust strategies when things don’t go as planned. Those are transferable skills for college, careers, and everyday life.”
Colby continued saying, “It’s experiential learning, not just theory. Instead of reading about investing, students actively participate. That makes the lessons stick far better than a textbook ever could. It also sparks career interests in some students as they discover interests in finance, economics, business, or data analysis through competitions like this, fields they might not have considered otherwise.”
On Friday, May 15, the Beehive Academy team was recognized for its achievement at the Utah State Capitol during a luncheon and team members received a $50 my529 award in recognition of their success. “All of us at Beehive Academy commend these students on their hard work and honorable achievement,” said Hanifi Oguz, Beehive Science and Technology Academy Executive Director. “This accomplishment reflects how Scott Colby’s leadership, instruction, and guidance help students achieve remarkable success and the ability to apply financial concepts in a competitive, real-world simulation. Scott’s impact, however, reaches far deeper than competition results. His commitment to teaching practical financial skills has led to exceptional outcomes among his students.”
Beehive Science and Technology Academy (Beehive Academy) is located in Sandy, UT providing a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) focused curriculum and well-rounded programs designed to offer students a solid foundation in humanities and social science with a variety of after school clubs for students in grades K through 12. Beehive Academy is proud to have established a solid foundation in STEM education for a diverse student base in Utah for the past 20 years and in those years, Beehive has earned a reputation as one of the area’s premier STEM schools. This year, Beehive Academy received its third Platinum Level STEM School Designation by the Utah State Board of Education and the STEM Action Center.
