Students at Bryan County Middle School were winners of the spring Stock Market Game competition for Bryan County Schools.

With guidance from teacher Ken Deal, students Tyler Rogers, Jenna Schuman, Sierra Newman, and Hamanuel Williams took their hypothetical start-up investment of $100,000 and turned it into a winning portfolio with a value of $113,821.

Winning teams from throughout the state attended the Stock Market Game Awards Luncheon in late April where Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel addressed students and gave some investment advice.

"Investigate before you invest. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And if the other person is in a hurry, it’s time to slow down," Secretary Handel said.

She gave the students some pointers for investing. Recalling the tortoise and the hare, she said that slow and steady investing really does win the race. She told students to make sure they know what they can afford to risk. She also urged students to use their math skills.

Of the Stock Market Game, the Secretary of State said, "this is a great program. It can help you in the real world, especially business."

In Georgia, more than 20,000 fourth through 12th graders in public and independent schools play the Stock Market Game each fall and spring semester for ten weeks, researching publicly-traded companies on the Internet, reading business publications, and crunching numbers to select stocks.

After ten weeks, portfolio values are added up and a statewide winner announced, along with a winning team from each school system or private school region.

The team from each school district- or geographic region for independent schools- with the highest portfolio value wins at the end of the ten-week competition.

GCEE has worked for the past 35 years to bring financial literacy and economic education to schools around the state through a range of programs, like the Stock Market Game. Georgia’s Stock Market Game is supported by the Atlanta Society of Financial Analysts, the Foundation for Investor Education, the Georgia Securities Association, Morgan Stanley, the Primerica/ Citigroup Foundation, and the Securities Industry Association/ Southern District.

To learn more, visit the Georgia Council on Economic Education Web site at www.gcee.org.