Enterprising Teens Rate Business Camp A Worthy Experience

By Mark Walsh

Waltham, Mass.

Billy Simons studies the financial data on his computer screen, then clicks a few keys and buys 1,000 shares of Yahoo!, the Internet portal. "Oh, yes," he says as the value of his stock portfolio rises above $1 million.

If only it were real money. But for Mr. Simons' associates, it's fortunate that this is just an exercise. Some of them have quickly lost $500,000 or more on their stock trades.

Mr. Simons is not a day trader or a Wall Street tycoon, but a 17-year-old high school student engaged in a computer simulation of the stock market. He and about 135 other students were attending a one-week camp at Bentley College here last month called the Leadership Institute, designed to introduce young people to the...