Published on Mon., April 7, 2014

ECG Personal Finance TeamThree E. C. Glass Personal Finance students finished among the state’s top scorers in March and will be competing in The Governor's Challenge in Economics and Personal Finance State Championships on April 9th at the Virginia Commonwealth University campus.

More than 3,000 high school students from throughout Virginia competed in one of the state's premiere academic competitions last month. ECG’s “Top Flight” team, comprised of ECG sophomore Tim Quaintance, senior Devin Smith and junior Sam Hudnall, finished among the state’s top scorers in the Personal Finance Division. On April 9th the students will present detailed financial planning recommendations based on a real-world case study. “The students learn to make informed decisions about savings, investment, insurance, loans, and other aspects of financial planning,” team coach and Business teacher Terri Sue O’Hara said. “These skills are important for students to be able to succeed in a challenging and changing economy.”

Hudnall has been preparing spreadsheets for his assigned case study. “My goal is to develop a budget which redistributes expenses and brings us ahead in about two to three years,” he said. Other team members are working on sound insurance coverage and savings plans for the same scenario, he added.

After making their presentations, students are grilled by judges. “So, in addition to proposing and selling a pretty complicated budget resolution, we have to defend it in a fairly involved question-and-answer session,” said Hudnall.

The first-place team from the Governor’s Challenge will be invited to participate in the National Personal Finance Challenge in May in St Louis.

Virginia is one of only three states to require a full year of Economics and Personal Finance for graduation, according to ECG Principal Dr. Tracy Richardson. “We strive to enhance economic education in the classroom by participating in a competition such as the upcoming Governor's Challenge,” she said. “We’re very proud of the Glass team’s impressive scores in the last round of competition, and we’re confident they’ll excel [at the state competition].”

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