West Mercer Elementary student Owen Bernstein recently took part in the National Investwrite essay competition with the rest of his fifth grade class.

The entry was in conjunction with Mark Headlee’s class’s participation in the Stock Market Game.

Bernstein’s essay finished fifth place in the country, and gave him the opportunity to join his teacher at the Annual Stock Market Game awards ceremony lunch in Renton on May 31 at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.

The lunch recognizes Stock Market Game winners as well as National Investwrite winners.

“This is the second year I have had my class take part in this online simulation. They must research and decide what stocks they wish to purchase, in real time with real stock prices. I am very proud of Owen for his excellent achievement in the writing competition,” said Headlee.

One of the West Mercer teams finished 44th out of 283 teams in the state. Members include: Josh Chansky, Graham Cartwright, Alex Patel, Riley Milburn and Emerson Fruehling. Another team finished 74th overall, with team members Jasper Geer, Vincent Kwan, Michael Deal, Derek Wang and Ethan Marot.

The Stock Market Game allows students to learn about how their classroom lessons apply to the real world in a fun way.