An eighth grade class at St. Barnabas School in Long Beach was recently awarded first place in the National Stock Portfolio Contest sponsored by Smith Barney/Citigroup.

Teacher Jennifer Graham's class increased the value of their portfolio by 1.10 percent, surpassing the performance of more than 90 classes from schools in 18 states that participated in this year's program.

The contest started after a three-day financial planning class taught by Smith Barney financial consultant Richard Casciaro, a parishioner at St. Barnabas Church.

"We need to do more and more of this," said Casciaro. "It's good to be a part of this because this helps with all those financial responsibilities the kids will face as adults."

Graham's class team created a hypothetical portfolio consisting of five shares of stock selected from a list prepared by Smith Barney. For 12 weeks the teams from all participating schools tracked their performance online with St. Barnabas coming out on top with the best overall performance.

Each student on St. Barnabas' team will receive shares of Citigroup stock, currently valued at almost $50 per share, to begin their own portfolios.

"The stock market can be complicated to understand even for adults and we wanted the kids to have a general understanding of the market," said Graham. "If they're thinking about college or buying cars when they are old enough they need to start saving now. This was a big eye-opener for them."