Stamford Public Schools: AITE Sophomores Earn 2nd Place In The 18th Annual Capitol Hill Challenge

Press release from Stamford Public Schools:

June 2, 2021 - 5:07pm

Stamford Public Schools (SPS) announced that Academy of Information Technology & Engineering (AITE) students Laurel Fuda, Stacey Pierre and Marco Ratermann took second place in the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Foundation’s 18th annual Capitol Hill Challenge™ (CHC), presented by the Charles Schwab Foundation. The AITE students participated in the CHC as part of a Finance class taught by AITE Teacher Ray Milo.

According to SIFMA, the CHC is a financial education competition for public middle and high schools that reaches every U.S. Congressional district. This national, 14-week, financial education competition pairs members of Congress with up to two public schools to teach students about saving, investing and civics. More than 10,000 students, representing all 50 states, participated this year.

The AITE team of sophomores, who represented Connecticut’s Fourth District and U.S. Congressman, Jim Himes, is the only Connecticut team to finish in the top 10.  

“The program promotes a better understanding of our government and fiscal policymaking,” said Milo, who also serves as the advisor to the AITE’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). “I am so proud of our students, who demonstrated an understanding of personal finance and economics, the value of the capital markets, and an increase in their critical thinking and collaborative skills.”  

Throughout the competition period, teams manage a hypothetical $100,000 online portfolio of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ESG investments and cash. Teams are encouraged to work together to diversify across asset classes and maximize the return on their portfolios. 

At the end of the competition, the top-10 performing teams win prizes and national recognition as well as an opportunity to engage directly with the government, business, and education leaders. The AITE students will be recognized during the 2021 CHC virtual awards ceremony on June 9, 2021, along with teams from Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, Maine, Oklahoma, Massachusetts and New York. Since its start in 2004, CHC has made 5,500 matches of US Senators and Representatives with schools, encompassing nearly 133,000 students across the country.

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Stamford Public Schools (SPS) comprises more than 16,000 students, over 1,500 professionals, and 21 schools, including seven magnet schools and three International Baccalaureate sites. SPS has a total of 13 elementary schools, five middle schools and three high schools. The mission of the Stamford Public Schools is to provide an education that cultivates productive habits of mind, body and heart in every student.

SPS is proud that our district is as rich in diversity as it is in talent. We have students from many cultural backgrounds and geographic locations—as demonstrated by the more than 70 different languages spoken in the homes of our families.  SPS offers our students a learning experience rich in cultural diversity and reflective of the global society in which they will work and live.

The Capitol Hill Challenge uses the SIFMA Foundation’s curriculum-based Stock Market GameTM program, which features an online investment simulation of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ESGinvestments to equip students with a better understanding of the global capital markets and economic trends. It is proven to advance students’ performance on math and economic tests and improves students’ and teachers’ personal financial behavior.

Founded in 1977 by academics at Buffalo State, The Stock Market Game has since expanded through a national network of educational nonprofit organizations to reach more than 20 million students. An independent study by Learning Point Associates found that students who participated in The Stock Market Game scored significantly higher on mathematics and financial literacy tests than their peers who did not participate. They also found that teachers who taught The Stock Market Game reported that the program motivated them to better plan for their own financial futures. The Stock Market Game has been named the only program that successfully increased scores on the Jumpstart Coalition’s test of high school students’ financial literacy.

This press release was produced by Stamford Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.