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| [January 19, 2006] |
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Local High School Student Wins National Investment Essay Contest; Stuyvesant High School Senior Explores Tortoise vs. Hare Investment Choices
NEW YORK --(Business Wire)-- Jan. 19, 2006 -- Melissa Chan, a senior at Stuyvesant High School in New York City has been named the national first place winner for the high school division of the fall 2005 "InvestWrite" stock market student essay competition. The Foundation for Investor Education's "InvestWrite" competition is an innovative extension of its award-winning Stock Market Game(TM) (SMG) program.
Chan, who participated in the SMG program in Mr. George Kennedy's "Wall Street with Merrill Lynch" elective class at Stuyvesant, competed against 340 other high school students nationwide to win the top prize.
In the "InvestWrite" essays, students can apply the knowledge of math, language arts and business to actual savings and investments principals. Students are provided a topic and an investment scenario, which requires them to assess, research, and then formulate possible solutions based on their own findings, logic, and ideas.
"The 'InvestWrite' competition challenges the students to take the knowledge they gained during the Stock Market Game competition and apply critical thinking skills to replicate a real-world investment situation," said Kathy Floyd, the executive director of the Stock Market Game(TM) Program. "Feedback from teachers around the country has been terrific. Many say InvestWrite helps them understand saving and investing better while improving their students' work and study skills."
Over 9,000 students from 833 classrooms across the country participated in three grade divisions: Elementary (4-5), Middle (6-8) and High School (9-12). Melissa was among three first place winners, each chosen in their respective grade division. Teachers nationwide participating in the program performed the first round of judging for the essay competition. Independent, volunteer judges drawn from industry, education and local communities then chose the winners from among 944 essays submitted by the teachers.
"The rapid growth and success of the InvestWrite competition, launched just two years ago, is proof of its relevance and value as a teaching and learning tool," said Donna C. Peterman, the foundation's chair and senior vice president, PNC Financial Services Group. "It is an excellent cross-curriculum activity, which helps develop and strengthen student's analytical and writing skills."
Chan's essay demonstrated her investment knowledge by speculating on the risks that can affect a positive, long-term financial outcome. In her entry entitled The Investment Race, she evaluated the merits of two stocks using the analogy of the "The Tortoise and the Hare." Although she admitted that it was more exciting to choose the hare, she knew her risk tolerance was more that of a tortoise. Melissa noted, "As a young investor with very little capital I am willing to risk, my preference is for steadier, albeit more modest growing stock." Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) was her tortoise stock noting its growth rate averaged around 14% year over year for the last three years, "not bad for a company that also pays $1.32 dividend yielding 2.20%." Melissa also noted that JNJ would benefit from aging baby boomers. With a year over year EPS (Earnings Per Share) growth rate of over 280%, Google was Melissa's hare. In analyzing the stock, she was not surprised to find its P/E ratio (Price-Earnings Ratio) at a high of 86.5. "One has to wonder if the growth rate and high stock price is sustainable," Melissa said in her essay. In addition, she wrote about the great risk of the stock performance getting pushed lower by competitors such as Yahoo and new technologies.
"This competition is an excellent opportunity to focus on writing for economic and investing topics," said Mr. George Kennedy, Melissa's teacher. "The students have found the SMG program to be very motivating."
Each of the top-three student winners will receive a variety of prizes, including a laptop computer, a trip to either Disney World or New York City with their parents, and a $1,000 savings bond. Second- and third-place winners also receive laptops and other prizes, while seven additional finalists in each category receive $100 gift cards. The first place student's teacher will also receive a laptop, a subscription to the Wall Street Journal and a five-day trip to New York for the New York Stock Exchange's Teachers' Workshop Program.
The Stock Market Game Program(TM), administered by the Foundation for Investor Education, an affiliate of the Securities Industry Association, is an online education program used in thousands of classrooms nationwide to help teach math, social studies, business, economics, and language skills while focusing on the importance of long-term savings and investment. More information about the SMG Program is available at: www.stockmarketgame.org
"Wall Street with Merrill Lynch" has been sponsored by the firm since 1998. It is offered in the fall and spring semesters to Stuyvesant students who have a strong interest in economics and investing. The course includes regular classroom instruction and a variety of enrichment opportunities, including guest speakers from Merrill Lynch, trips to the Merrill Lynch trading floor and the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
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