Program allows kids to get fiscal

William Thomason’s world is mysterious — at least to the black and Hispanic high school students entering the financier’s Wall Street Wizards Urban Financial Literacy Program.

The purpose of the program is to make his habitat less mysterious and more inviting to youngsters who might not know anything about business or finance.

“Just because you’re not surrounded by certain things doesn’t mean they’re not out there,” said 19-year-old Kevin James, who spent two years in the program and has just finished his freshman year at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

“Because of the Wizards, I was able to meet people and see things in the financial world that I normally wouldn’t have otherwise. Most black and Hispanic kids, even if they’re middle class, just don’t have the kind of network or relationships that are connected to Wall Street,” Mr. James added.

That is exactly why Mr. Thomason, managing partner in Oakland, Calif.-based Taurum Capital Partners LLC, decided to start the program for minority high school students in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003.

“This is a world that I stumbled into,” he said. “I didn’t know it existed. The closest a lot of kids in the inner city get to a financial institution is a check-cashing store. That’s not the way it should be.

“I want to expose them to Wall Street and a world they don’t know exists. I like to say that in the 1960s, our challenge was to get our civil rights. Now our challenge is to get our economic rights.”

It appears that Mr. Thomason, an easygoing but hard-driving 43-year-old Detroit native, has met the challenge and then some.

He has tirelessly spread the word in Bay Area schools, churches, community groups and “to anybody that would have me,” and now gets up to 100 applications for about 25 available spots. Many of the students are from low-income families, but some, such as Mr. James, whose mother is a contract specialist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, have middle-class suburban backgrounds.

“The Wizards are open to anyone who is willing to make the commitment,” said Mr. Thomason, author of “Make Your Money Work for You — Instead of You Working for It: Lessons from a Portfolio Manager” (John Wiley & Sons, 2006).

Indeed, slackers need not apply.

The Wall Street Wizards meet once a month for four hours on a Saturday morning during the school year in Mr. Thomason’s Oakland office.

“That’s the hardest part — waking up early on Saturday morning,” said Marco Viti, a 16-year-old sophomore from San Rafael.

The students study math, economics, investing, finance and money management. They are also required to read The Wall Street Journal and discuss business stories.

The students also help manage the Wall Street West Financial Literacy Fund, a separately managed investment account held in custody at New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. Although an investment committee has the final say on decisions, the students gain first-hand experience of what it takes to manage an investment portfolio.

“We assign each kid one stock to follow. Every month, they report to an investment committee and are expected to provide an update and a “buy,” “sell” or “hold” recommendation,” Mr. Thomason said.

What’s more, the students learn what it takes to be an investment adviser, a buy-side analyst and a portfolio manager. Last month, the Wizards were able to attend the annual shareholder’s meeting of Emeryville, Calif.-based Jamba Juice in Berkeley, Calif.

Guest lecturers talk to the students about financial areas as diverse as alternative investments and real estate. This year, Mark Farrell, vice president of investment banking for San Francisco-based Thomas Weisel Partners LLC, taught a class in corporate structure and reading financial statements.

Mr. Thomason also stresses the importance of the students’ learning to manage their own money.

“I don’t care if they go to work on Wall Street,” he explained. “I know that only a few of them will. But all of them are going to have to manage their own money one day. There’s a history of economic empowerment programs for black people in this country that most people don’t know about. There were Freedman’s banks established for newly freed slaves in the South after the Civil War. That’s one of the reasons I’m doing this.”

Making sure the Wizards are exposed to the financial world as it actually exists is also a key part of the program.

This month, the Wizards toured San Francisco’s financial district and found themselves sitting in Thomas Weisel’s 37th-floor conference room with a stunning view of San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.

They were clearly impressed when Shaugn Stanley, the firm’s chief financial officer, told them an investment banker could make $100,000 or more coming out of college, with the potential to make more than $1 million later in their career.

But such rewards require considerable discipline, the Wizards learned. Highly paid traders, for example, must be at their desks by 4:30 a.m. each day to take part in the pre-opening meeting.

Securities research has its own rigors. Jim Duffy, managing director and research analyst at Thomas Weisel, taught the students about free cash flow and its importance in evaluating consumer goods companies. Michelle Cherrick, a managing partner and investment banker, told the group why same-store sales are important and how the metric is used to analyze retail chains such as Jamba Juice.

The Wizards also paid close attention to Jeff Handy, who is a managing director at Thomas Weisel and head of private-client services.

“Education is not an option; it’s a requirement,” he explained.

“I was glad to hear that coming from a brother,” one of the students told Mr. Thomason afterwards.

The Wizards ended their visit to Thomas Weisel on the firm’s hectic trading room floor. Understandably wide-eyed, they watched as orders were frantically barked out and saw giant screens on the wall flash news reports and trading activity, while three computer monitors on each trader’s desk displayed an unceasing flow of data, charts and numbers.

But the traders were also impressed when Maurice McCook, a sophomore at City College of San Francisco, glanced at a stock chart and correctly identified a “double top,” a technical indication that after a stock rose, fell and rose again, the price was beginning to decline as sellers began to overwhelm buyers.

Mr. McCook, who lives in Oakland, said later that he became interested in the stock market after seeing the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness,” starring Will Smith. It is the true story of Christopher Gardner, a black man who became a hugely successful money manager.

Now Mr. McCook wants to be a hedge fund manager, and through the Wall Street Wizards, he has been able to meet hedge fund professionals.

“That’s something I wouldn’t have access to through any other means,” Mr. Cook said.

Meeting financial professionals and “learning about the actual life of someone in business,” is also what appealed to Brianna Sholars, a 15-year-old high school sophomore who lives in Morgan Hill, a suburb of San Jose.

Sheila Sholars, Brianna’s mother, said she heard about the Wizards through a support group for black workers at Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM in Silicon Valley, where she is a software engineer.

“When I read a description of the program, I thought ‘Why isn’t everyone doing this?’ and I jumped on it,” Sheila Sholars said. “It’s a one-hour drive to get to Oakland, and I don’t even blink. If it took two hours, I would do the same thing.”

Brianna Sholars and the rest of the Wizards on the tour all said they plan to go to college.

All of the approximately 100 students who have been part of the Wizards’ program since its inception have graduated from high school and gone on to college, Mr. Thomason said.

He also wants to give the students a chance to work in the financial world and is working on expanding the Wizards intern program as well as its presence around the country.

“Follow up when people say, ‘Give me a call,’” Mr. Thomason exhorted the Wizards at the end of the tour. “E-mail them. Take them up on it. Stay in touch with them.”

Last year, Mr. James, the Morehouse College freshman, who is majoring in business administration with a concentration in finance, did just that and ended up working for Progress Investment Management Co. LLC in San Francisco over the summer.

“I loved every minute of it,” he said.

E-mail Charles Paikert at [email protected].

OTHER LEADERS? This is the second in a series of profiles of financial advisers who are serving their local community. If you would like to suggest an adviser who is making an outstanding contribution, e-mail Charles Paikert at [email protected].

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