California students win $10,000 grand prize in national Personal Finance Challenge by getting “hands-on” about money, despite school closures
The students were led to victory by their high school business teacher in the midst of statewide shelter-in-place orders
For Immediate Release: Monday, May 11, 2020
Press Contact: Lexie Nguyen; anguyen@ccee.org; (562)-533-3621
Four students and their high school business teacher from Adrian Wilcox High School in Santa Clara, California claimed first place during the national Personal Finance Challenge among 9,316 students from across the country. Shaunak Kale, Shivaansh Kapoor, Jonathan Chang, and Pratinav Sharma each won $2,000 for demonstrating applied basic personal finance knowledge by presenting to a panel of judges who work within the banking or finance industries.
The win was not an easy feat in the wake of school closures and stay-at-home orders. “The transition to online learning has not been without challenges. On top of having to adapt to distance learning, we had entered 13 different competitions this year and seven of them were scheduled to culminate after the shelter in place took effect. Of those, four got cancelled, and two got rid of any kind of ‘live’ competition by just telling us to ‘make a video’ and then they would send us the results via email. The California Council on Economic Education’s Personal Finance Challenge was the only competition that maintained the competitive feel to it by involving a live aspect. My students got a lot from the competition,” said the students’ teacher, Anthony Rafetto.
About the Personal Finance Challenge: The National Personal Finance Challenge is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge of personal finance by connecting with other students from across the state in an online competition. The Personal Finance Challenge is designed to provide a competition in Personal Finance for teachers and students throughout the nation.
The top 10 highest scoring teams are invited to the state championships. This year, due to statewide shelter-in-place measures, the entire competition was hosted virtually.
The California Council on Economic Education (CCEE) provides economic and personal finance education and resources to K-12 teachers, students, and their parents throughout California in order to help them gain a real-world understanding of economics and personal finance, so they can make better decisions to compete and succeed in the global economy. Full Media Kit
