When Senior Shane McNeil came home from the 2013 Invest Ed awards ceremony, he was $1,250 richer. McNeil was chosen as the state winner of the Invest Ed investment report contest that teaches students about smart investing in the stock market.

The announcement came at an awards banquet at the University of Oklahoma on Saturday, Jan. 11. The banquet was originally scheduled for December 7, 2013; however, an ice storm prevented the awards from taking place at that time.

McNeil was one of seven high school students chosen by the Oklahoma Securities Commission as a regional winner in the Invest Ed contest.

To say that McNeil was excited about the win would be an understatement.

“They kept calling names, and I was still sitting there. I knew it was me when they called the last regional winner. I started freaking out because I was so happy,” McNeil said.

Computer science teacher Jeff Prater introduces the Invest Ed program to his students as a part of his personal financial literacy class. Prater said he was very proud of Shane’s accomplishment, which he said is comparable to winning a state championship in football.

“It was all Shane. He wrote the report and worked hard. It is a huge deal to win at the state level of the Invest Ed contest. Shane earned this honor,” Prater said.

McNeil competed against 1,878 other students in a state-wide contest. From those essays seven regional winners were chosen, and those students attended the awards banquet.

Senior Sam Kimbrough also attended the banquet to support Shane.

“The moment we knew Shane won was great because he was so happy and excited. He really deserved it,” Kimbrough said.

McNeil said he plans on investing the money he won in his future by purchasing a laptop for college.

As part of their project, students start with $500,000 to invest in a mock portfolio of stocks and report their earnings and losses in a log to track their progress.

Marlow is one of 75 schools registered in the South-Central region of the state. Students from these schools submitted reports based on what they learned from their investments in November, and winners were judged for the writing and content of their report.

The Invest Ed program officials were not only impressed with Shane’s report but also with his personal story. They are planning to film a  documentary  telling Shane’s unique story about how he has turned his life around.

McNeil was interviewed at the banquet, and a film crew will come to Marlow to follow up. Prater, Kimbrough and high school counselor Brenda Parker will also be interviewed for the documentary.