2 Florida ninth-graders win $20,000 scholarships

$20,000 H&R Block scholarships won in recent competition.
$20,000 H&R Block scholarships won in recent competition. | Courtesy of Shutterstock
Alexa Brutus and Mark "Trey" Hawkins recently proved that they could take on tough financial challenges in order to reap big financial rewards.

The State College of Florida Collegiate School ninth-graders won $20,000 each in H&R Block's 10-week financial literacy competition. They were among five winners out of more than 70,000 students who took part in the contest.

The goal of the annual contest is to get teenagers ready to handle the financial expectations of adulthood.  Scholarships are paid out once they are full-time university students, and may be used to pay for tuition, books and common student expenses.