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Read financial statements, compare valuations, and pitch a public company in this two-week finance course for high school students at the UBC Sauder School of Business.
Rated 4.6 out of 5 for classroom experience by students surveyed across the broader program in 2026.
Course Description
A stock price tells you what investors are paying. Deciding what a company is worth means looking beyond the number.
In this course you will explore how money moves through the financial system and how to judge a company's performance. Read income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements together. Then use profitability, liquidity, leverage, and efficiency ratios to compare businesses and ask what the numbers reveal.
Make finance personal by applying compounding, discounting, interest rates, and loan repayment calculations. Compare a car loan with a lease and the cost of renting with buying a home. See how timing and assumptions can change the answer even when two payment options appear similar.
For a team stock pitch, choose a publicly traded company and investigate its business drivers. Estimate its value using market comparisons and a simplified intrinsic valuation, then consider risks and potential catalysts. Defend your investment recommendation through questions and feedback. You'll practice making a financial argument that holds up beyond a single headline figure.
This two-week course is part of UBC Sauder Business Academy. The course is available to residential and commuter students. Beyond class, students connect focused academic work with campus life, growing independence, and clearer direction about what students may want to study or pursue next. The program is developed and academically led by UBC Sauder School of Business.
What You Will Do
• Connect income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements
• Compare businesses using profitability, liquidity, leverage, and efficiency ratios
• Calculate how compounding and discounting affect money over time
• Compare car loans and leases, and renting versus owning a home
• Estimate a company's value using market multiples and simplified intrinsic valuation
• Build and defend a team stock pitch with evidence, risks, and potential catalysts
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Explain what connected financial statements and ratios reveal about a business
• Use time value of money and valuation methods to compare financial choices
• Develop and defend an investment recommendation using financial evidence and risks
You’ll leave with your team’s valuation, stock-pitch presentation, and a certificate of completion.
Why Investment Analysis Skills Matter
Investment analysis teaches students to connect a claim about value to evidence. Financial statements show different parts of a company’s position and performance, while ratios and valuation methods help students compare firms on a consistent basis. Assumptions remain visible, so students can test how a change affects the conclusion.
Time value of money also supports everyday financial reasoning. Loan, lease, mortgage, and present-value exercises show why timing and interest rates matter, not just the total price. Team stock pitches add communication and judgment: students must choose relevant evidence, acknowledge risks, and explain a recommendation clearly. Those habits are useful in mathematics, economics, business study, and personal financial decisions.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
If you follow the stock market, wonder how companies are valued, or want to understand how interest changes the cost of borrowing, this course gives you real financial questions to work through. You’ll investigate company accounts, compare everyday financing decisions, and help a team make a case for an investment.
Expect to work with numbers, use standard spreadsheets and presentations, and explain your reasoning to classmates. No specialized finance software is required.
Recommended by More Than 4 out of 5 Students
Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 UBC Sauder program.
Your Summer at UBC Sauder School of Business
The UBC Sauder Business Academy gives high school students a two-week introduction to university-level business at the UBC Sauder School of Business in Vancouver. Led by UBC Sauder School of Business faculty and industry experts, the program combines lectures, simulations, case studies, and faculty-led workshops with team projects that address real business challenges. Students explore leadership, marketing, finance, strategy, and entrepreneurship, then present their ideas to faculty and industry guests in a final showcase.
Outside class, optional on-campus housing, student socials, and networking events bring together students from Canada and around the world. The Point Grey setting, with forest, ocean, and mountain views, gives the summer a distinctly West Coast character as students build business fluency, confidence, independence, global connections, and clearer direction about university study and future careers.
The program is developed and academically led by UBC Sauder.
Summer Discovery Certificate of Completion
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive