InvestinGator wins Rep. Susie Lee’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Nevada’s Third District

When asked what inspired the creation of InvestinGator, the student said, “Growing up in a family where both my parents are financial professionals, I was naturally exposed to concepts like quarterly earnings, market outlook, and interest rate forecasts.  At the age of 12, I was given a small amount to invest using Robinhood, which eventually grew to over 200% of its original value. This motivated me to actively trade and closely follow financial news.

In early 2020, while in middle school, I participated in a 30-day stock market simulation competition. Excited, I quickly diversified my portfolio across different asset classes and sectors and followed earnings reports and financial news. Then, the pandemic hit. My well-diversified and strategized portfolio unexpectedly took a hit as the market dropped significantly.
To my surprise some of my classmates who had little investment knowledge and traded with no clear strategy did better than me at the end of the 30-day period. Some students bought shares of companies they simply liked or purchased products from, while others made risky investments with penny stocks or short-selling shares and were extremely lucky. I was upset with my results. I felt this game, played by thousands of students across the country, sent the wrong message as it was based on short-term return without taking investment risks into consideration.

In high school, I became an advocate for addressing inequity in education funding. I founded the BrainSTEMs YouTube channel to provide free STEM education videos and resources for underrepresented and under-resourced youth. I also started the PEER (Promoting Equity in Engineering and Robotics) organization at my high school and over the summer dedicated three weeks to hosting robotics and coding workshops at various YMCA locations in Nevada. Additionally, I volunteered as a mentor for World Top 50 and award-winning VEX IQ Robotics Challenge Teams at Engineering for Kids.

Being comfortable with coding in several computer languages, I felt the urge to develop a superior app to the standard stock market games currently offered to middle and high school students and providing many who do not have the means to invest with real dollars a different first-time investment experience. I wanted to build an app to send a message: investors can both make money and support companies that are working to make a positive impact.

With that, I created InvestinGator, a fun app aimed at our youth to promote the ideals of responsible investing.”