Celebrating Easton Agee’’s good news are (l-r): Elisa Harris, Instructional Partner at Crestline, Agee, Jenna Penrod, 4th grade Language Arts and Writing and Robin Varwig, Crestline principal. Agee shares the certificate he won along with the a check for $25 for winning the essay contest. | Randy Garrison

Randy Garrison

Hartselle Enquirer

It takes years to build up the financial savvy to navigate the markets, but Easton Agee is decades ahead of the game. He just won distinction as the Alabama state winner in the SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite® essay competition.  Easton, a 4th grade student at Crestline Elementary, claims this recognition in the Grades 4-5 school division in the Fall 2015 competition.

The SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite competition challenges 4th – 12th grade students to analyze an investment scenario and recommend portfolio allocations targeting financial goals. The competition serves as a culminating activity for nearly 600,000 students nationwide who compete in The Stock Market Game™ program each year.

InvestWrite invites students to develop the personal financial savvy needed to make real-world financial decisions with confidence and a deeper understanding of opportunities, consequences, and benefits.

Students consider real-world economic events and trends, conduct research online, develop investment recommendations and, in the process, gain the skills to prepare for their own financial future. They work in groups during the Stock Market Game program but then write essays individually about their experience.

The Fall 2015 Alabama winning InvestWrite essay composed by Easton Agee was chosen through rigorous judging by financial industry professionals.  The SIFMA Foundation’s Stock Market Game and InvestWrite programs are delivered in Alabama by the Alabama Council on Economic Education.

Easton was very excited upon being notified during lunch time with his fellow fourth graders. He thought his essay was good but did not think he get there. He thanked his teacher Jenna Penrod for her help. Penrod teaches writing and language for fourth grade. “Mrs. Penrod made sure it sound good and was very helpful when I was writing this,” Easton said after finding out he had won the  essay contest.

Here is the text of his essay:

When I ride to school in the morning I see many companies like WalMart, Burger King, and lots more.  They all sell important things for our global community.  They manufacture things from foods to sportswear; however there is one company that is not located in my community but still stands out to me and that is Apple. I am glad investors chose Apple since it is a company which manufactures products that benefit people around the world.

My team would have picked the Apple stock, but it had gone up and down a lot since its inception so we didn’t want to take the risk.  Even though my team did not pick Apple this would still be my ideal stock because it is promising for the long term.  Speaking of the long term, Apple was founded on April 1, 1976.  Since its beginning, Apple has gone up like a rocket, although if you were to buy Apple for a short term investment I would not recommend it because like I said earlier their profits go up and down.

Apple is always one step ahead of the competition because they make so many great things for our community like the Apple watch and innovative software systems like iwork.

Iwork is a system that helps people do projects faster and more efficiently.  Also Apple is using their technology to help kids learn at their own pace.   Apple technology has a program inside it called Siri.  Siri can call someone for you without you even touching your phone.  It can play your music by you just saying what song you want to play, and any question you have it can answer or take you to a website that can provide the answer.  Many people buy Apple products because they need things like iphones and ipads to do daily tasks.

Everyone needs a phone to communicate with people all around the world.  There are many different kinds of phones, but most people prefer the iphone because it comes in many different colors and sizes so people can express themselves through customization.  People continue to buy their phones because Apple keeps making them better.

There is one more great product that I would like to talk about and that is the Macbook.  The Macbook is an advanced, super thin laptop that comes in three different colors: silver, space gray, and gold.  Apple has tried to make the Macbook the most advanced laptop yet by making it super thin.  Plus they have included many pressure sensitive touch screen controls to make typing and doing projects easier.

I think Apple is a forward thinking company that offers many jobs to the world.  There are many Apple stores as well as Apple factories.  Apple has even bought a small part in a car dealership and is said to start making cars with Apple technology.  The fact that they make all sorts of things for the world proves that Apple is a great company