Over 1,100 stu­dents had an in­cred­i­ble op­por­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in the Wiz­dom­CRM Vir­tu­al Stock Mar­ket Game, thanks to spon­sor­ship by Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed.  Some 152 of those stu­dents were ho­n­oured by Paria last month in a spe­cial awards cer­e­mo­ny.

In a news re­lease, Paria cel­e­brat­ed all the stu­dents, es­pe­cial­ly the achieve­ments of over 600 stu­dents from Mara­bel­la North Sec­ondary School, San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec­ondary School, and Pleas­antville Sec­ondary School lo­cat­ed in the fence line com­mu­ni­ties.

Paria not­ed that these stu­dents en­thu­si­as­ti­cal­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in two cy­cles of the Sus­tain­able Stock Mar­ket Game, show­cas­ing their ded­i­ca­tion to fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy and cap­i­tal mar­ket ed­u­ca­tion.

Among the 2,875 par­tic­i­pants from di­verse so­cio-eco­nom­ic back­grounds, 34 stu­dents dis­tin­guished them­selves by se­cur­ing po­si­tions in the top rank­ing 200 stu­dents.

“Their out­stand­ing per­for­mance is a tes­ta­ment to their hard work, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and ap­ti­tude for strate­gic think­ing. This im­pres­sive achieve­ment demon­strates the im­pact of the pro­gram and the ded­i­ca­tion of these young minds,” the com­pa­ny stat­ed.

“Paria is com­mit­ted to em­pow­er­ing the next gen­er­a­tion of lead­ers through ini­tia­tives like the Sus­tain­able Stock Mar­ket Game, fos­ter­ing fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy and re­spon­si­ble in­vest­ing prac­tices among Caribbean youth,” it said.

Paria’s Gen­er­al Man­ag­er for Ter­mi­nal & Trad­ing, Mush­taq Mo­hammed, said the com­pa­ny was proud to be a spon­sor of Wiz­dom­CRM Sus­tain­able Stock Mar­ket Game.

“When Paria was ap­proached to in­vest in the vir­tu­al stock mar­ket game, we be­lieved it was in align­ment with our cor­po­rate so­cial in­vest­ment pro­gram in the ed­u­ca­tion of our youths,” he re­count­ed.  “This plat­form pro­vides an ex­cel­lent start for sec­ondary stu­dents to learn about trad­ing on the stock ex­change mar­ket and the roles and func­tions of com­pa­nies in­volved in trad­ing such as Paria.”

General Manager PARIA, Muhstaq Mohammed (right), presents a prize to the Principal of St. Benedict's College, Mrs. Hymattee Jaleel. At left is Country Manager WIZDOM CRM, Charielle Plowden. [Image courtesy Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited]

NAOMI QUAN

The Paria GM-Ter­mi­nal & Trad­ing not­ed that the com­pa­ny in­vest­ed in 250 stu­dents in Cy­cle 5 (April to Ju­ly 2023) in five schools with­in its fence-line com­mu­ni­ties—pay­ing for their sub­scrip­tion and par­tic­i­pa­tion dur­ing the com­pe­ti­tion.  Due to the over­whelm­ing in­crease in par­tic­i­pa­tion by stu­dents Paria al­so in­vest­ed in an­oth­er 250 stu­dents in Cy­cle 6 (Sep­tem­ber to De­cem­ber 2023) at four Sec­ondary schools.

“Paria has com­mit­ted to spon­sor­ing an­oth­er 400 stu­dents dur­ing Cy­cle 7, which com­mences April 2024,” he re­vealed, “and 200 Uni­ver­si­ty Stu­dents at a Plat­inum Tier Part­ner­ship to par­tic­i­pate dur­ing the pe­ri­od Sep­tem­ber 2023 to May 2024.”

On Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 4, 2024, Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed proud­ly stood along­side ed­u­ca­tors, par­ents, and the top 152 stu­dents for the pres­ti­gious Wiz­dom­CRM Sus­tain­able Stock Mar­ket Game awards cer­e­mo­ny themed, "Strive for Ex­cel­lence through Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence in the 21st Cen­tu­ry".  

De­signed to nur­ture a deep­er un­der­stand­ing of cap­i­tal mar­kets, Wiz­dom­CRM's plat­form ig­nites a spir­it of ex­cel­lence, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion. By en­gag­ing stu­dents in a dy­nam­ic learn­ing en­vi­ron­ment, we aim to cul­ti­vate not on­ly fi­nan­cial lit­er­a­cy but al­so a broad­er aware­ness of eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties with­in the CARI­COM re­gion.

Coun­try Man­ag­er at Wiz­dom­CRM Caribbean Lim­it­ed, Charielle Plow­den, says the com­pa­ny firm­ly be­lieves “in the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of ed­u­ca­tion to un­lock the full po­ten­tial of every stu­dent”, and com­mend­ed the stu­dents for “their un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion and ex­cep­tion­al tal­ent.”

“Our in­no­v­a­tive plat­forms have been metic­u­lous­ly de­signed to em­pow­er stu­dents with es­sen­tial skills in de­ci­sion-mak­ing, analy­sis, and adapt­abil­i­ty, equip­ping them to thrive in the 21st cen­tu­ry,” she ex­plained.  

“Our pi­o­neer­ing Re­gion­al Stock Mar­ket Game com­pe­ti­tion, in­spired by crick­et and show­cas­ing the col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Guyana, fos­ters cross-cul­tur­al Caribbean co­op­er­a­tion and ig­nites stu­dent en­thu­si­asm for sav­ings, bud­get­ing and ESG in­vest­ing. We ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pate our Re­gion­al Pre­mier League, themed Cap­i­tal Mar­kets Aware­ness and Ed­u­ca­tion, in April, glob­al­ly rec­og­nized as Fi­nan­cial Lit­er­a­cy Month. Our in­no­v­a­tive Caribbean Rank­ing Leader­board in­stils na­tion­al pride in our fu­ture lead­ers as they rep­re­sent their re­spec­tive coun­tries.  We at Wiz­dom­CRM and Paria are com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­ing our ef­forts to em­pow­er Caribbean youth and pro­mote lit­er­a­cy across the re­gion," Plow­den said.