Juliet S. '26 and Margalit S. '25 Win National InvestWrite Essay Contest

Congratulations to Juliet S. ‘26 and Margalit S. ‘25 for winning the national first and third place prizes, respectively, from InvestWrite, a national essay writing competition judged by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).

During the last quarter of the 2020 - 2021 school year, students in Mr. Cameron’s Middle School Personal Finance Level 2 class participated in The Stock Market Game™ - a program which has enabled more than 20 million students to become engaged in the world of economics, investing, and personal finance. As a culminating activity, students submitted essays for Investwrite’s national essay competition. The prompt asked students to write an essay about what is important for their future, explaining their short- and long-term financial goals, and how they would achieve these goals using stocks, bonds, or mutual funds to create a diversified portfolio. The essay serves as a means to bridge classroom learning with practical research and knowledge.

Nearly 4,500 students across the country submitted essays – 1,287 in the middle school level – and over 1,800 industry professionals served as judges to score the submissions. Elizabeth Reidel, the National Director of the SIFMA Foundation, surprised students by joining the Middle School meeting virtually to announce the winners.  

Juliet S. ‘26 won the national first-place prize for her essay and received a medal, trophy, laptop, certificate, college letter of recommendation, a $100 gift card for receiving the first place prize in the state of California, and a $750 gift card for receiving the national title. In her essay, Juliet described how she would pay for a down payment for a car in the short-term by investing in the Vanguard Small-Cap ETF and the Invesco S&P Small-Cap Information Technology ETF, and finance her own publishing company in the long-term by investing in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. 

“I had no idea this was going to happen,” said a surprised Juliet. “It’s really exciting. This is the coolest thing I’ve ever done!”

“There’s a lot of different ways I’ve envisioned my future going. I’d like to continue with dance in some way, but I definitely think I could see myself working in finance. It’s really cool that I’ve had the opportunity to learn about this, especially because it’s a male-dominated field.”

Margalit S. ‘25 won third place nationally, taking home a medal, trophy, laptop, certificate, and college letter of recommendation. In her essay, she shared that she would use stocks, bonds, broad index funds, and ETFs to fund a car in the short term and a house in the long term. In her essay, she also stressed the need for more financial literacy classes in schools. 

“My dreams don’t really involve finance right now, but I definitely want to do what I can to make sure everyone has access to this really valuable education,” shares Margalit. 

“In my essay, I talked about the importance of financial literacy and how, in today’s society, it’s really underemphasized. I hope that as I grow into an adult, I can take action in improving and increasing access to this kind of information.” 

Marlborough’s personal finance classes are a part of the school’s Entrepreneurship program.