Long Beach Student Receives Natl. Award for Stocks Knowledge

Thursday, one Long Beach Middle School student was surprised at school with a national award for his knowledge of how the stock market works.

It was just a regular day for 8th grader, Conner Thurtell, until he walked into his school’s library Thursday morning and got a big surprise. Thurtell, National Winner of the SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite Essay Competition, says, "I saw all the cameras. I just kind of was in shock and didn’t really know what to do. I looked around and I was like, ‘Where am I supposed to go? Is this for me or am I just standing here?’”

It was an unexpected celebration, and it was just for him. Thursday, the Mississippi Council on Economic Education honored Thurtell for placing first in the state and third nationally in the SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite Essay Competition, an intensive challenge for students to analyze stock investments. Thurtell also says, "I’ve always wanted to go into investing and I think me being able to participate in this, not really to win it or anything, but just to get the extra experience, it meant a lot for me."

This program is meant to apply math to the real world. Thurtell chose to research Tesla Motors, an electric vehicle market. He wrote his essay about Tesla’s stock shares and their investment plan. Selena Swartzfager, President of the Mississippi Council on Economic Education, says, "The detail he knows about who they are and what they do and what their stock value is and why it goes up and down, it’s just extremely impressive."

Thurtell is the first Mississippi student to place in the top three nationally, competing against 20,000 other students. Among those at Thursday’s celebration were Thurtell’s parents, who couldn’t be prouder. Daniel Thurtell, Conner’s dad, says, "Of course he’s my son, but he’s extremely intelligent. I just can’t tell you how excited I am to see that he’s won this award."

Thurtell tells News 25 he wants to study business and hopefully be a stock broker one day. The SIFMA Foundation hopes their programs like InvestWrite can inspire more students to relate to math and show how applicable what they learn in school is to the real world.