College : UC Merced Career goal : Financial adviser or stockbroker

About Marshaun : Marshaun Bass ’ future is bright , but he ’ s had to overcome the adversity of his mother passing away in 2010 and his father in 2019 . Despite these losses , he kept his grades up and heads to UC Merced this fall to achieve his dream of working in finance , perhaps on Wall Street . Marshaun ’ s interest in stock trading comes from his grandfather , who began talking with Marshaun when he was just 13 about “ making money work for you .” Marshaun lives with his grandparents .

Marshaun became even more sure of his career choice after working on a stock trading simulation project in high school . In the digital marketing and entrepreneurship lab assignment , Marshaun doubled his �100,000 “ investment ” in two months of stock trading , the third highest growth in his class . The project was in a class at the Center for Advanced Research and Technology ( CART ), a half-day program for Fresno Unified and Clovis Unified students with hands-on career labs .

In addition to the Fresno Unified Scholarship , Marshaun was also awarded the FFB Bank Award scholarship .

In Marshaun ’ s words : “ At times I did find it hard to focus on school when it got challenging . With my family ’ s motivation and help , I eventually got back on track and started to focus on education .”

From Tatiana Acosta , college advisor for the UC Merced Upward Bound program : “ Marshaun has had a lot on his plate as an independent student , but he always found a way to manage his time wisely and maintain a positive attitude in the midst of it all . Many students in his position would have given up but he has stood resilient through it all . I believe he will be successful at UC Merced studying business management and economics and one day I ’ ll be coming to him for help with my finances .”

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