Camp $tart-Up is an 11-day residential program designed to give teens a financial grounding for the rest of their lives. Through a fun, fast, interactive curriculum, campers learn the basics of entrepreneurship, budgeting, investing, and saving. Working in teams, they form a mock startup, produce a business plan, create a stock portfolio, and acquire skills for independence and self-confidence. Participants enjoy field trips to innovative businesses and meet mentors and role models who open their eyes to greater possibilities.


Past participants tell us the whole camp is fun, but we make sure to have room for plenty of extras, including a pool for hot afternoons; an impromptu kickball game before bed; a Jeopardy-style tournament; a visit to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to see the earthly applications coming out of JPL’s Mars Project; field trips to green, leading-edge companies; sports arenas; museums; and time to just hang out with new friends.

Independent Means will be offering Camp $tart-Up 2010 in 3 locations: Florida Gulf Coast University (Ft. Myers, FL); Scripps College (Claremont, CA); and Wilbraham & Monson Academy (Wilbraham, MA.)

ASA has been offering its outstanding University of Massachusetts-Amherst College Prep program since 1984. We provide hands-on enrichment and college credit courses such as psychology, writing, photography, SAT Prep with The Princeton Review, arts and tennis. Classes are kept to maximum of 12 students to ensure personalized attention and interaction. After classes, our team of dedicated resident assistants organize sports, arts and other fun activities. Students can also sign up for mini-clinics ranging from lifeguarding to leadership training. On weekends, there is a full schedule of trips to Boston, Cape Cod and Newport, as well as main attractions, museums, concerts, sports events. Students interested in learning more about college admissions can sign up for our counseling workshops and Boston college visits. ASA also offers College Prep programs at Oxford (UK), Emory University and UC-Berkeley; College Admissions programs at Columbia U, Tufts U and UC-Santa Barbara; and Study Abroad in Spain, France and Italy. Please visit our website or request a brochure for details about all our programs.

Wall Street 101 is a fun and interactive opportunity to learn about the financial industry and other business fields, from NASDAQ to IPO to Dow Jones. Through classroom participation and hands-on exercises, participants explore the stock market and discover the process of investment. They experience the excitement and challenges of working in a real trading room environment, and conduct simulated trading sessions. Wall Street 101 also includes trips to the Boston Investment Firms, and other Boston area attractions.
Camp participants attend college-level lectures and receive a broad overview of the classroom environment in Bentley University’s advanced Smith Technology Center. In addition, participants are provided with a workshop on the college application process with a forum to ask questions to a college adviser.
Wall Street 101 participants will work in teams to utilize the financial technology of the Trading Room to construct a diversified portfolio of equity securities. The groups comprises five members, each responsible for analyzing different sectors of the market. Upon completion, the group leader facilitates the development of a formal presentation that includes the rationale for their selection and a detailed financial analysis of at least one company in their portfolio. The presentations are conducted on the final day for parents and members of the Bentley community.
Wall Street 101 is held at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, from July 9, 2009 to July 25, 2009. Students get a taste of college life by living on campus for the duration of the week. Because the program is residential, accepted students must not make any commitments that would necessitate their leaving the campus during the week.