Rockwood Student Earns Top Prize in State InvestWrite Contest
![A Rockwood student smiles with a trophy she earned for winning a state essay conest.]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1751996051/rsdmoorg/mjhplessb1boqi7oop06/InvestWriteWinner_Benzforweb.jpg","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1751996051/rsdmoorg/mjhplessb1boqi7oop06/InvestWriteWinner_Benzforweb.jpg","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1751996051/rsdmoorg/mjhplessb1boqi7oop06/InvestWriteWinner_Benzforweb.jpg","width":680}])
Rockwood Student Earns Top Prize in State InvestWrite Contest
Lily Benz, a rising freshman at Eureka High, earned first in Missouri in the middle school division of the Spring 2025 InvestWrite essay competition, the nation's premier youth financial writing contest.
InvestWrite is part of a family of financial education programs of the SIFMA (Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association) Foundation that strengthens economic opportunity across communities and increases individuals’ awareness of and access to the benefits of the global marketplace.
The national essay contest, a capstone to the SIFMA Stock Market Game, challenges students to apply their understanding of financial concepts by crafting essays on real-world investment scenarios. Essays are evaluated anonymously by financial professionals, emphasizing students’ grasp of asset allocation, diversification and long-term financial planning.
Benz and her classmates participated in this contest as a part of a cross-curricular unit about investing in the stock market taught by their Academic Stretch teacher Rachelle Berkley and language arts teacher Allison Seitz at LaSalle Springs Middle this past spring.
This year’s prompt was “What is your dream from the future?" and Benz wrote about her dream to become an architectural engineer. Berkley and Seitz congratulated Benz and presented her with a state champion trophy at LaSalle Springs on July 7.
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