By Valerie L. Moran - Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy HS
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Andres de la Fé, a senior at Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy High School, receives a certificate acknowledging his first place win in the Florida High School InvestWrite student essay competition from Kevin Lydon, associate vice president and financial advisor for Morgan Stanley. At left is Kim Zocco, business and entrepreneurship teacher at Archbishop McCarthy High.
SOUTHWEST RANCHES | Andres de la Fé, a senior at Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy High School, has won first place in the Florida High School InvestWrite student essay competition.
Sponsored by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association SIFMA Foundation, the competition serves as a culminating activity for nearly 600,000 students nationwide who compete in The Stock Market Game each year.
Andres credits three honors level classes he took at McCarthy High for the solid foundation that helped his essay win in Florida: Business and Entrepreneurship, Business and Finance Technology, and Social Entrepreneurship.
“In my class I learned about
long term investments and realized I would have greater opportunities to grow
and maintain wealth if I look beyond the short term and immediate satisfaction
strategies which have a strong appeal in our society,” he said.
“Teaching financial literacy provides students a foundation to enter the world of business and make educated financial decisions following high school and college,” said Kim Zocco, McCarthy High's business and entrepreneurship teacher.
“Since the program began, 187,094 students have written essays,” said Kevin Lydon, associate vice president and financial advisor for Morgan Stanley, who presented a certificate, trophy and gift card to de la Fé and congratulated Zocco on teaching a first place winner.
While creating a top performing $100,000 portfolio in the Stock Market Game is difficult, the competition in the InvestWrite competition is even stiffer. Almost 9,000 students wrote essays, 3,612 of them at the high school level.
Andres’ writing assignment included researching the job responsibilities of a capital markets analyst, discussing the most important characteristics of a long-term investment strategy, selecting two investments and explaining the rationale for investment decisions, and assessing how the investments might be affected by the national global economic environment or industry/corporate events.
“Andres is a perfect example of a hard working student who takes what he learns and maximizes it toward a successful future,” said Zocco.
