It takes years to build up the financial savvy to navigate the markets. But Sofia Diaz of Miami Lakes is decades ahead of the game, having just becoming the first place Florida state winner in the SIFMA Foundation’s InvestWrite® essay competition with McGraw Hill Financial.
The young Diaz, a seventh-grader at Miami Lakes K-8 Center, was among the 20,000 students nationwide who took the InvestWrite challenge, and claimed her honor in the middle school division in the Spring 2014 competition.
The competition challenges 4th to 12th-grade students to analyze an investment scenario and recommend portfolio allocations targeting short- and long-term 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. Diaz won first place in The Stock Market Game program’s Florida competition when she was in the 5th grade.
Diaz, 12, maintains an A+ average in her school’s gifted program. She is a member of the National Junior Honor Society, Art Club and her school’s Media Crew. Last year, she was one of 24 Miami-Dade Public School students selected to participate in the Research in Ecology program at the University of Miami funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Diaz’s teacher, Jennifer Simeon, has been on the staff at Miami Lakes K-8 Center for two years and was recently recognized as the school’s Rookie Teacher of the Year.