A sophomore at New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva High School won first place in Minnesota in an essay contest.

Tori Raimann, 16, won an essay contest through InvestWrite. Her class participates in a stock market game online, where they invest virtual money into stocks and track gains and losses. Students had to write an essay of 700 words or less for LaDona Flowers’ class, and Flowers submitted six essays from her class to the state contest.

“I didn’t think it would win,” Raimann said.

She wrote her essay about the replacement for Google in China. China now uses Baidu as a search engine, and Raimann’s essay suggested that people should invest in it because it will be used by so many people. She said Flowers helped the class pick out ideas.

“Mrs. Flowers threw out ideas and said I’d better make it a good paper,” Raimann said.

Flowers said she likes that the essay contest incorporates what the students learn all year from investing their virtual money in the stock market game. She thought Raimann’s essay was well-researched and responded to the question well.

“I was extremely proud of her for winning this competition,” Flowers said.

Raimann was recognized Wednesday at the high school during the awards and scholarships ceremony. Raimann received a plaque from InvestWrite, an academic charm from her school district and the Minnesota Twins donated three game tickets to her for winning the contest.

“We’ve done this contest for years and never had a student win,” Flowers said.

She likes to do the contest so students can do some critical thinking to help reinforce concepts that were learned in the Internet investing class. Flowers said Raimann is a good student and always has a fun attitude.

“She’s a very fun student to work with because she really wants to learn,” Flowers said.