History
Ohio Wesleyan Investment Club was established in May of 1998 when the college received a grant from Jim Oelschlager, founder and chairman of Oak Associates , for $50,000. Mr. Oelschlager wanted students to start an investment club made up of students so that they could get real experience in trading stocks. We compete against 14 other schools. Every year the University gets 5% of our portfolio.

Investment Club in media
OHIO WESLEYAN CLUB TAKES STOCK IN INVESTMENTS
Date: Thursday, March 16, 2000
Section: NEWS
Page: 01A
Byline: Tom Sheehan
Source: Dispatch Staff Reporter

DELAWARE, Ohio -- They are new to the game, but student investors at Ohio Wesleyan University have produced returns that would satisfy any veteran stockbroker. They are learning, and the school has profited. "You're the best-kept secret on campus,'' club adviser Cliff Cook told the six members of the club at a recent meeting. "You're actually making money for the university.'' Since starting in April 1998 with $50,000, the club has watched its stock rise -- closing at $84,000 at the end of 1999. In accordance with the wishes of the students' benefactor, an Akron money manager, the club has given nearly $9,000 -- 5 percent of the total portfolio for each of two years -- to the university's general fund. The students don't receive class credit for their work. Cook, an accounting professor at Ohio Wesleyan, said the experience working with real money is reward enough. "How often do you get a chance to deal with an $80,000 portfolio as a student?'' said Dario Cosic, a 21-year-old senior in economics management. "You hope to do it for yourself someday.'' When Jim Oelschlager was a business student at Denison University, he didn't have money to work with as he learned to invest. Oelschlager, now 57, wants to give students the opportunities he lacked. He has donated similar sums to 15 other college investment clubs. Oelschlager, president of Oak Associates in Akron, over the years has grown his investment-advisory firm to more than 1,000 clients with more than $27 billion in assets. In 1996, he decided to share the wealth and spread some knowledge, the sort that can be learned only on the job. Oelschlager asks only that students return 5 percent of the value of the portfolio to their university each year. Any profits are reinvested in the club's holdings. He gave $50,000 each to Ohio clubs at Denison in Granville, the College of Wooster, Mount Union College in Alliance, the University of Akron and Case Western Reserve in Cleveland that year. College clubs are selected if the colleges have financial dealings with Oak Associates or if an Oak employee is a graduate. Eleven more college clubs have been added since 1996, including Ohio Wesleyan. "My wife and I had the idea to give the kids an opportunity to make real money,'' he said in a telephone interview yesterday. "They do a pretty good job and take it seriously.'' No students have blown all of their seed money. In fact, all the clubs made money at the end of last year except Case Western, which had a 2 percent loss. Akron led the pack with a 202 percent increase. Ohio Wesleyan had a 42 percent increase. Oelschlager and 16 employees who are liaisons with the schools meet every January to hand out additional money awards to the top five clubs and to the club with the most improvement in its portfolio. The employees love the competition, too, he said. "They all had pennants they hung in their offices of the schools they represented,'' Oelschlager said. Akron got $25,000 for finishing first. Ohio Wesleyan finished out of the running, but the students still were happy. "We're responsible for the portfolio,'' said economics major Omair Chaghtai, a 21-year-old junior. "A lot of things you study don't apply in practice.'' Most club meetings deal with whether to keep the stocks or consider others. Risk-taking is part of the game. "If you don't lose, you won't know what it's like to win,'' Chaghtai said.