Crown Heights student takes top prize in national essay competition

Parkside Preparatory Academy student Ariel Granger may still be in middle school, but she knows as much about stocks, bonds and mutual funds as her friends do about emojis and apps. Now she’s been nationally recognized for combining her commitment to sustainability with financial analysis.

The incoming eighth-grader won first place in the SIFMA Foundation’s Spring 2019 InvestWrite competition after researching a long-term investment approach that incorporated environmental, social or governance (ESG) factors. Her essay was so impressive that it not only won best in New York State at the middle school division (out of 2,100 submissions), but also won best in the country.

InvestWrite is a national essay competition that bridges classroom learning in math, social studies and language arts with the practical research and knowledge required for long-term personal financial planning. Students are usually asked to analyze an investment scenario and recommend portfolio allocations that target short-term and long-term financial goals. The competition serves as a culminating activity for participants in the SIFMA Foundation’s Stock Market Game program. The Stock Market Game, an online simulation of the global capital markets for 4th through 12th grade students, reinforces STEM learning and 21st century skills, as well as economics and personal finance. In teams of three to five, students invest a hypothetical $100,000 in real bonds, stocks and mutual funds, learning cooperation, communication and leadership as they manage their portfolio. They also earn interest on cash balances and pay commissions on trades, just like in real life.

“By making economies fun, interesting and relevant through the Stock Market Game and InvestWrite, we can give students of all backgrounds a better understanding of their personal financial lives, our economy, and the opportunities inherent in the global capital markets,” said Melanie Mortimer, president of the SIFMA Foundation.

This year’s InvestWrite competition required students to select an environmental, social or governance issue they feel strongly about and identify a company that’s doing something to address that. The students were also asked to determine stocks, bonds or mutual funds that could be added to a portfolio to increase the ESG impact and to obtain financial returns in the long run. Granger identified the issue of protecting the ozone layer. She indicated in her essay that she would recommend a portfolio that included NextEra, Eversource, Exelon and TSBRX. She wrote, “The environment is very important for human existence. Earth is our home, so we must protect it, and the components that helps protect us.”

“When a company has a higher P/E [price/earning] ratio compared to its competitors or to its industry, it means that the investor is paying more for every dollar of earnings, which suggests that the stock is overvalued, and not good for a long-term investment,” Granger continued. “The electricity industry P/E ratio went from 13.15 in 2008, to 27.3 in 2019. NextEra’s P/E ratio is 13.59 and compared to its industry, the stock is undervalued, which means that it might be good for a long-term investment.”

Granger was surprised to learn she won at a school assembly on June 17, when SIFMA Foundation and Morgan Stanley representatives congratulated her and awarded her various prizes. Those prizes included a classroom pizza party, trophy, plaque, banner and certificate. As the first-place national winner in the middle school division, she was also told she’d be receiving a three-day all-expense paid trip to New York City, the financial capital of the world, with her teacher and a parent.

“At first when I heard that [the winning essay] was about the ozone layer, I immediately thought of mine and thought, ‘Wait, is this a joke?’ Then I started crying because I seriously didn’t think I would win,” Granger said after the assembly. “I’m really interested in space like the stars, planets and gases. I learned that there’s a lot of people out there trying to help the planet and, in the meantime, they’re also making money in the process.”

Math teacher Greer Aaron-Dawes, who’s also the advisor of the Stock Market Game at Parkside Prep, said the essay was demanding for Granger, in terms of researching and writing, especially because she was working on it around the time of state exams.

“I’m glad that she has learned that perseverance pays off. It was very hard to keep it a secret for nearly over a month,” said Aaron-Dawes. “There are other students who wrote beautiful essays; it could’ve been any one of them. I’m just proud.”

After the assembly, Mortimer emphasized the importance of both the Stock Market Game and InvestWrite opportunities being implemented inside and outside of the classroom.

“We recognize that if you make an early investment in young people, they have the capacity to plan for and make good decisions in their future financial lives,” she said on behalf of her organization. “We also recognize that personal finance is something often considered in the domain of adults only. In fact, when you work with young people, like Ariel, you can see the enormous capacity that they have – not just to understand the concepts but to apply them, to think creatively, and really plan for their futures.”

All photos by DeGregorio