VIRGINIA BEACH
The run of bad luck was impressive.
Princess Anne sophomore Noah Banasiewicz dropped his cell phone in the toilet and flooded his apartment. Senior Peter Nguyen flushed his phone, had his laptop stolen and suffered a car accident.
But they absorbed the hits, managed their budgets and won the H&R Block Budget Challenge. For Noah and Peter, play money paid big dividends with a cool $20,000 college scholarship each for their efforts.
"It's essentially a simulation of two months of your life after college," said Noah, 16, who is an International Baccalaureate student.
"A simulation of a bunch of catastrophes," said Peter, also an IB student, who will study computer science this fall at George Mason University.
Noah took the prudent path.
"I kept a close eye on the calendar to pay everything on time, and invested on a relatively small scale, so I never went into debt," he said. "It was all about avoiding penalties and keeping the budget stable."
He placed in the top 22 out of 13,000 students in his nine week session.
Peter, 18, was much less penalty-averse.
"I had huge penalties and big catastrophes," he said, noting that he sometimes missed bill payments in order to invest his salary. "It was all high risk, high reward for me, but it worked."
He placed in the top 22 out of 20,000 students in his session.
Rolled out nationwide last fall by the H&R Block Dollars and Sense program, the challenge tests the financial management skills of teens. A scholarship of $20,000 was awarded to 120 winners around the country, with one national winner receiving an additional $100,000 scholarship.
Business education teacher Jason Barefoot said it taught valuable lessons.
"It was eye-opening for kids to pay rent, cell phone and cable bills, and to time their student loans and auto loan payments," Barefoot said. "Many of them ran out of money before they ran out of month."
City coordinator for business and information technology programs, Theresa Dougherty said Noah and Peter were the only winners from the city's 11 high schools.
"I think H&R Block recognizes that there is not one absolute way to manage a budget," she said. "But fiscal responsibility requires time and attention."
In addition to the college scholarships, both teens said the challenge was personally beneficial.
"I absolutely will be in a better position to manage a budget," said Noah.
"And I won't be so risky with real money," said Peter, grinning. "At least not yet."
Princess Anne's Computer Information Systems students won eight of the 18 top-three finishes in the Microsoft Office Specialist Inaugural Virginia State Championship.
First-place state champs were Michelle Wu for Microsoft Word 2013 and Molly Sayles for Microsoft PowerPoint 2013.
"It was like a game," said Michelle, 16.
"We'd finish our class work and focus on faster test times," said Molly, 16.
Both won Microsoft Surface computers and sponsored travel to Orlando to compete in the Microsoft U.S. National Championship. That provided an opportunity to advance to the World Championships.
Second-place winners were Michael Wu, Excel 2010; Landon Miller, Excel 2013; Jack Westcott, Word 2010; and Jacob Allen, PowerPoint 2010. Taking third were Chris Chang, Word 2010; and Summer Browning, PowerPoint 2013. Grassfield High was the only other area school to win, placing first in Excel 2010.
Additionally, Princess Anne business students earned the second-most Microsoft Office Specialist Master Certifications in the state, and won regional firsts in both categories of the Team Competition "Governor's Challenge in Economics and Personal Finance."
Update: At nationals, Michelle Wu became one of six students representing the U.S. at the world competition in Dallas in August, when 140 countries will battle it out.
Irene Bowers, bowersi@aol.com