From Wednesday, January 25 to Sunday, January 29, Prep’s financial management class, led by Ms. Waynette Noe, went to New York City. Additional chaperones were Mr. Lee Ozier, Mr. Nathan Devine, and Ms. Kimberly Van Uden.

They arrived in New York City late Wednesday night and were up early Thursday morning for the opening of the New York Stock Exchange. The NYSE opened up with the Dow at an all-time high. After the NYSE, the group went to the Bank of New York Mellon to hear from bank executives. Then the class went to Tiger Eye Capital to hear from Prep graduate David Hobbs (‘02) who managed the hedge fund. After hearing from Hobbs, they rushed to see the closing of the NASDAQ. Thursday night Jocelyn Zhu, daughter of Prep teacher Ms. Jane Zhu, who talked about her experience in New York City at Juillard. Afterwards, they ice skated at the Rockefeller Center.

Early Friday morning the group went to tour the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The tour included seeing $200 billion dollars worth of gold that was stored in the basement of the Fed. After the fed, the group heard from the MTA art director who was in charge of the art and musical performances in the subway systems. Prep graduate Kate Carter (‘06) met the group at the hotel to talk about her job as a copywriter for an advertising agency. She discussed her experiences with Nike athletes such as Serena Williams and LeBron James. Friday night they went to see the Knicks play and went to the top of the Empire State building afterwards.

Saturday morning they went to see the 9/11 memorial and the One World Trade Center. After free time on Fifth Avenue, the day was wrapped up with Aladdin on Broadway.

Sunday morning they woke up and toured Yankee Stadium and then went to the airport to go home. However, the excitement of the trip was not over yet as the Delta Airlines system was down nationwide when the group landed in Atlanta. The flight was Atlanta to Jackson was delayed by five hours, and it was not until 2:30 in the morning that they arrived in Jackson.