Kelly Lane 5th Grader Wins Financial Essay Contest

The following is a press release from the SIMFA Foundation

It’s official! Ryan Antkowiak, a fifth grade student at Kelly Lane Intermediate School, in Granby, CT, is a Connecticut first place winner of the SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite^® student essay competition, sponsored by the SIFMA Foundation and SIFMA member firms.  Antkowiak claims top prize for the elementary school division of the Fall 2011 Connecticut competition.

As a culminating activity for the country’s 600,000 annual Stock Market Game™ participants, InvestWrite^® challenges 4th-12th graders to analyze an investment scenario, think critically and write a long-term financial plan. Students address real-world economic factors and trends, better preparing for their own financial futures.  Ryan Antkowiak is one of 20,000 students each year across the nation who take the InvestWrite challenge.

In his essay, Antkowiak was asked to discuss the three most important items to research when selecting a stock, bond, or mutual fund for his portfolio.  He wrote that examining a stock’s average, measuring its rating against other companies, and analyzing its performance over time are all important considerations.  Antkowiak also identified the daily range, the 52 week range, and the market cap as helpful tools for reviewing companies -- in his case, Google, Visa, and Dominion Resources. 

The Fall 2011 winning InvestWrite essay composed by Antkowiak was chosen through rigorous judging by thousands of teachers and industry professionals who evaluate students’ analysis of asset allocation, the investment potential of various publicly traded stocks, their overall understanding of the stock market, and the manner in which they express their investment ideas in essay form.

“Year after year, thousands of volunteer judges are astounded by InvestWrite students’ ability to effectively plan for long-term financial goals such as saving for college, buying a first home, and even retirement” said Melanie Mortimer, Executive Director of the SIFMA Foundation. “It proves the adage ‘it’s never too early to start’ and inspires us to do all we can at the SIFMA Foundation to equip millions of students like Ryan with personal financial skills for lifelong success.”

The SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite competition bridges classroom learning in mathematics, social studies, language arts, business and economics, with the practical research and knowledge required for long-term personal financial planning. Students are, in fact, building on what they have learned through their participation in The Stock Market Game, which has reached more than 13 million students since its inception in 1977.

The need for early adoption of financial literacy programs was recently endorsed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan when he addressed the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability.  “I think the challenge we face now is that we don't have a financially literate population," he said, attributing the shortfall in financial understanding to the absence of systemic instruction on the subject in schools, as well as at home and in the workplace. "As important as reading and math and social studies and science [are], I think today more than ever financial literacy has to be part of that," he said.

An independent study by Learning Point Associates found that students who participated in the Stock Market Game scored significantly higher on mathematics and financial literacy tests than their peers who did not participate. They also found that teachers who taught SMG reported the program motivated them to better plan for their future and to engage in financial planning, research, and use of investment products and services. The Stock Market Game has been named the only program that successfully increased scores on the Jumpstart Coalition’s test of high school students’ financial literacy.

Cynthia Gordon, Ryan’s teacher, has been teaching at Kelly Lane Intermediate School, a 2011 National Blue Ribbon School, for nine years.  She has coordinated The Stock Market Game for fifth and sixth graders since 2004 and the program is offered as a club to any interested student.

Ryan Antkowiak will be awarded his state InvestWrite prizes during a surprise presentation in front of his peers on Tuesday, February 7, 2012, at Kelly Lane Intermediate School in Granby, CT.     

 Text of Ryan Antkowiak’s Winning Essay:

The three details that you should look at when choosing a stock are: how well the stock has been over time, its rating against other companies, and its stock average. These details are important because they can help you predict how profitable the company can be.

Using this information, I found that a suitable stock for me would be Dominion Resources Incorporated. I found this stock on Fool.com, also with a caps rating of four out of five stars and a dividend of 1.97 (4.90%). All these key details can be important to me later on in life. I have learned all these key details in the Stock Market Game, but one that really stands out to me is the dividend. This might really carry me far in my financial future because I need to know how much they’re willing to pay me if their charts go up in the world of investment, which one day I hope to become a part of.

Three more things you need to look at when viewing a stock are: the daily range, the 52-week range, and the Market Cap. Using my research, I found that Visa Incorporated could also be a stock to precisely fit my investment portfolio. I chose this because the Market Cap’s data showed 72.72 billion stocks had been sold and because the charts showed a great difference with Visa ahead of other companies. Using this information that Visa contains, I think it will become a profitable investment.

The last stock I would buy would be Google. For two reasons: one, I’m familiar with Google because of my daily use of it, and two, after consulting with Jim Cramer’s top picks, I found that Google is a very successful company with great potential. I trust this is true because Jim Cramer graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with a B.A. in government and has a history of successfully picking top stocks. He also has a television show called Mad Money that provides viewers with the knowledge that helps them become better investors. Learning from Jim Cramer and the Stock Market game has been fun, easy, and will surely help me with my financial future.

 The SIFMA Foundation is dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of the financial markets for individuals of all backgrounds. Drawing on the support and expertise of the financial industry, the SIFMA Foundation provides financial education programs and tools that strengthen economic opportunities across communities and increase individuals' access to the benefits of the global marketplace. Notable Foundation programs include The Stock Market Game, which has enabled more than 13 million students become financially literate, the InvestWrite national essay competition (www.investwrite.org), and the Capitol Hill Challenge. For more information on the SIFMA Foundation, visit www.sifma.org/foundation.