Kenya Heard's essay received top honors among her Massachusetts high school peers in the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Foundation’s InvestWrite® student essay competition, giving Wayland High School its sixth consecutive win in the state competition.

Heard, a 12th grader at WHS, penned an essay discussing "the five most important items to research before purchasing a stock, bond, or mutual fund," according to a press release from SIMFA.

In her essay, Heard examined the dividend status, price-to-earnings ratio, the competitive superiority, market capitalization and institutional ownership of CVS. Based on her research, she elected to invest 15 percent of her portfolio "as her share would be large enough that if it grew she would increase her profit, but small enough so she could diversify her portfolio with other stocks, bonds, or mutual funds to reduce risk." (The full text of her essay is included as a PDF with this article).

Heard's essay was selected as the winner after a "rigorous judging" process completed by teachers and industry professionals. Judges evaluated students’ "analysis of asset allocation, the investment potential of various publicly traded stocks, their overall understanding of the stock market, and the manner in which they express their investment ideas in essay form."

Veteran business educator James Page, Heard's teacher, has served for nine years in Wayland Public Schools.