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Ryan Ruby ’23 has accumulated many skills in finance and business as a student in Mr. Kevin Zupkus’ Personal Finance class. He has learned in a very short amount of time how to make informed decisions that can shape the rest of his life.

“This is a great class,” said Ryan. “I’ve learned about IRAs, stock investment and where and how to spend my money. I’ve learned that is it better to buy a used car instead of a new car. The cost and the insurance would be lower. I was also taught the value of buying a home vs, renting a home and the costs associated with that.”

Mr. Zupkus charged Ryan and the rest of his students to work with and grow their own stock portfolio utilizing Investopedia. Each student had a starting account of $100,000. When Ryan was examining options, he looked for companies that looked promising.

“I looked for ones that a high growth and then went down. I bought shares because I thought they would grow again. I also looked at companies that were low but had the potential to go up again. Thanks to this project, I see how valuable a commodity the stock market is. Currently, my portfolio is worth $108,000.”

Ryan believes that Personal Finance should be a mandatory class for all Holy Cross students. He said that the class gives him a window into “where he could possibly be going.”

He credits Mr. Zupkus for making the class informative and fun. “He is really good at what he does,” said Ryan. “He is interactive and tells us stories that keep us interested, motivated and educated.”

A Waterbury native, Ryan previously attended St. Francis of Assisi and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. He spent two years at Sacred Heart High School before transferring to Holy Cross.

“I like Holy Cross a lot. It offers me so much more than my previous school.  Classes such as Economics, Personal Finance and Business opened up to me. There are more student clubs. Also, you get to know different types of people because of the larger school community.”

Upon graduation from Holy Cross in the spring, Ryan plans to further his knowledge in this area of study. “I want to study business and management. Accounting is looking promising. I also am looking to invest in stock somewhere.”