Dos Pueblos High School students Haley Araki, Owen Chen, Richard Cheng and Peter Shao, under the direction of coach/economics teacher Roland Lewin, won the Los Angeles Capital Markets Contest on May 27 at the Federal Reserve Bank in Los Angeles.

The contest enables students to learn basic economic principles through stock trading and financial analysis, and challenges them to draw conclusions and provide recommendations for addressing national economic issues.

The Dos Pueblos team qualified for the finals of the competition by submitting an essay detailing the movements in the capital markets during the past 10 weeks. For the finals, they prepared and delivered a PowerPoint presentation comparing the economy now with a year ago, incorporating the effects of the European debt crisis.

The prize was $500 for each student, and an all-expense paid trip to New York.

The team will visit the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and see the gold in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

— Barbara Keyani is coordinator of administrative services and communications for the Santa Barbara School District.