Ava Ng Wins Investment Essay Contest

Ava Ng, a fifth-grader at Martha Jones Elementary School, won the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) foundation’s InvestWrite essay contest among students in the Commonwealth. Ng chose to analyze Kiva, which is a non-profit organization that aims to end poverty by providing microcredit loans to people throughout the world to start businesses or organizations that help their community.

This author recently had the good fortune to speak with Amy Wong, Ng’s mother about her win and her interest in Kiva. Wong reported when Ng receives her annual Chinese New Year money, she is required to give a certain amount to charity. Kiva has been Ng’s non-profit of choice for about three years. Kiva makes it very easy for Ng to see where her donation goes. This is often into areas such as farming and manufacturing in other countries, and she has received notes from the beneficiaries of her donations. These donations are loans to these people and Nh has had good luck with being repaid.

“It’s rewarding--she can donate [to Kiva] and see where her money is going,” said Wong. In her essay, Ng suggested that Kiva use a conservative investment formula with at least half in cash. Wong stated that Martha Jones teacher Robbie Bsrtlett has run the Stock Market Game, from which this essay contest sprung, for about ten years. The participation in the essay contest is about five years old. According to Wong, the research for non-profits for the essay contest is optional for students. Because of this fact, all research occurred on the student’s own time, be that at recess or home.

More information about Kiva and microcredit may be found here.