the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Dunellen NJ, the Financial Planning Association of New Jersey (FPA of New Jersey), the leading membership organization for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM professionals in the State of New Jersey, is pleased to recognize three college students for their performance in the 2nd Annual Cheddar Bowl, a competition designed to showcase the financial planning understanding of students in financial planning programs in several New Jersey colleges and universities.
The Cheddar Bowl, an annual program hosted by the FPA of NJ, is a three-stage competition designed to engage students with the financial planning community and develop relationships within the field while putting their knowledge of the profession to the test. In late October, the competition involved students from Seton Hall University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Rutgers University. Each stage of the competition involved students answering questions about financial planning posed by a practitioner panel of experts. Those students making the final stage of the competition then competed in the finals on November 3 for a chance to win up to $4,500 in financial scholarships.
The practitioner panel included Alexis Ranzinger, FPA of NJ President John Middleton, CFP®, CFA, FPA of NJ Chair John Bucsek, CFP®, and FPA of NJ Member Services Director Bellaria Jimenez, MBA, CFP®.
“The FPA Cheddar Bowl gives students an opportunity to demonstrate their financial literacy abilities in a Jeopardy-style game while having the opportunity to earn scholarship money. The students from Rutgers, FDU, and Seton Hall were very impressive in their knowledge of financial concepts and their speed in responding to the questions,” says FPA of NJ Member Services Director Bellaria Jimenez, MBA, CFP®. “This was a very fulfilling experience as a financial professional to work with both the faculty and the students.”
An award ceremony was hosted on November 11 at the Newark International Airport Marriott to announce the winners of this year’s Cheddar Bowl and celebrate the students’ accomplishments with FPA of NJ members and the chapter’s Executive Committee. The winners of the 2nd Annual Cheddar Bowl are:
First place: Joseph Cobo from Rutgers University received a $2,000 scholarship.
Second place: Christopher Kawalec from Seton Hall University received a $1,500 scholarship.
Third place: Stephen Hanscom from Fairleigh Dickinson University received a $1,000 scholarship.
All three students also received a one-year membership in the FPA of NJ and a letter of recommendation from the 2021 FPA of NJ Board of Directors.
The FPA of NJ Board of Directors would also like to acknowledge and thank the faculty members from competing schools, including Ron Richter, MBA, of Rutgers University, Paige Soltano of Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Mark Schild, MBA, of Seton Hall University.
The Financial Planning Association of New Jersey (FPA of NJ) is a chapter of the Financial Planning Association® (FPA®), the leading membership organization for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM professionals and those engaged in the financial planning process. FPA is the CFP® professional’s partner in planning by helping them realize their vision of professional fulfillment through practice support, learning, advocacy, and networking. Learn more about FPA of NJ at fpanj.org and on Twitter at twitter.com/FPANJ1.
