MIDDLETOWN — Macdonough Elementary School third-grader Eniola Shokunbi is being hailed as a “portfolio prodigy” after her essay an investment strategy won her the top prize in her division in the SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite competition.

Beating out thousands of other students around the country, competing in the elementary school division, Eniola, 9, researched and composed a long-term financial plan for the national contest, according to a press release.

Eniola is hoping to be the first African American female president, she said in her essay. “I could invest money to help my campaign, or get money for my children’s education, or for my education (sure, sometimes parents pay for children’s education, but we can be independent)!”

The SIFMA Foundation competition “bridges” classroom learning in math, social studies, and language arts with the practical research and knowledge required for saving, investing and long-term planning.

It also serves as a culminating activity for The Stock Market Game curriculum-based financial education program that challenges students to manage a hypothetical $100,000 online portfolio of stocks, bonds, mutual funds and cash over a period of 14 weeks, a semester or school year, the statement explains.

The contest asked fourth- through 12th-graders to explain something they learned about investing they didn’t know before participating in the game. “Shokunbi wowed the panel of expert judges with her thoughtful and insightful essay,” the news release said.

She explored what investing in a diversity of stocks means. “Think of it this way. You have 10 plates of different types of cookies that you’ve never tried before,” Eniola wrote. “But you don’t know if you will like any of them, and this is your only chance of eating the cookies that week,” she said in her composition,” (and you also don’t want to wait.) Well, instead of taking 20 of each (since you don’t want to have too much sugar), you could take one cookie of each kind.”

She then explained her strategy. “Now if I had $100,000 to perform well over the next 30 years, I would invest a quarter in bonds, a quarter in mutual funds, and half in stocks,” she wrote in the essay, but only in ecofriendly companies and companies that treat their workers well.”

Eniola and her teacher, John Ferrero, were honored by the SIFMA Foundation during a classroom presentation June 16.

Read more here: https://www.middletownpress.com/middletown/article/Middletown-girl-s-investment-essay-wins-top-17258426.php