Stock Market
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MINDEN, La. -- A Minden student turned a classroom stock market simulation into a winning essay, earning top honors in Louisiana in a national writing competition.

Gage Richards, a high school junior, participated in the Stock Market Game last spring in Amber Snider's class at Glenbrook School. The program gave students an imaginary $100,000 portfolio and allowed them to make investment decisions involving stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

The simulation follows the real-life ups and downs of the market over several months, giving students a chance to see how their investment choices affect a portfolio.

Richards said he drew inspiration from real-world events as he made decisions during the game.

"We were watching some TV shows that talked about gas prices, oil companies, whatever," Richards said. "And then I thought about whatever has been coming up lately on the news, AI, all that stuff."

After completing the stock market game, Richards wrote an essay about what he learned. He said he incorporated personal experiences and considered how events in the real world could affect investments.

"I talked about personal experiences and how that would affect stocks," Richards said. "I didn't even know there was an award for it."

That essay earned Richards the top honor in Louisiana in the InvestWrite competition, where his work was judged among entries submitted by thousands of students nationwide.

Although Richards said he hopes to become an engineer rather than pursue a career in finance, Snider said lessons about investing and financial planning can benefit students regardless of their future careers.

"Any opportunity that I can find to give them a chance to practice these financial decisions in a real-world scenario, I like to give them every opportunity," Snider said. "So the Stock Market Game is just one of those instances where they get to make decisions and manage a portfolio."

The Stock Market Game and InvestWrite competition are sponsored by the SIMFA Foundation.