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Council for Economic Education Launches National Investment Challenge with Vanguard’s New My Classroom Investor Simulation

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Challenge brings investing education to high school students nationwide

NEW YORK and MALVERN, Pa., Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — In time for a new school year, the Council for Economic Education (CEE) announced today the launch of the National Investment Challenge, a new competition designed to help high school students build foundational investing skills that include setting goals, staying disciplined and balancing risk.

The competition will use Vanguard’s new My Classroom Investor, a free, ready-to-use investment simulation that helps high school educators bring investing education to life in the classroom. Early access to the competition opens in November, ahead of a January 2027 kickoff. The competition will include a qualifying round and live state rounds, culminating in a final national round in Philadelphia in May. Teams of students will vie for cash prizes.

The challenge arrives as teens show growing interest in investing and need engaging, practical ways to learn the value of long-term decision-making before real money is at stake. The National Investment Challenge joins CEE’s lineup of student competitions, including the National Personal Finance Challenge and the National Economics Challenge. As one of the first national competitions dedicated to capital markets education, the National Investment Challenge will give students the opportunity to participate in a live investing simulation, respond to real-world case studies, and present their investment strategies. The challenge offers an engaging way for students to learn how informed investing decisions can support long-term financial well-being.

“Technology has changed the financial landscape for young adults,” said Steve Bumbaugh, Chief Executive Officer of CEE. “Access to thoughtful, interactive tools like My Classroom Investor allows students to engage and learn from their mistakes without the real financial consequences that can come from those choices. This kind of experiential learning deepens student understanding of investing and instills the value of long-term thinking in a very tangible way.  As we launch our first National Investment Challenge, we’re proud to partner with Vanguard as they have been a steward of financial wellness since 1975.” 

In My Classroom Investor, students choose a character with a financial goal — such as saving for college — and manage a mock 30-year portfolio where they can buy and sell stocks, bonds, and ETFs. Akin to real life, market shifts and unexpected household events, can affect their portfolios and give students opportunities to rebalance. This simulation is part of Vanguard’s popular My Classroom Economy, a free program available to educators to bring financial literacy to life in classrooms across the country.   

“We believe every student should have the opportunity to learn how investing can support long-term financial well-being,” said Aldustus (AJ) Jordan, Head of Community Stewardship at Vanguard. “The National Investment Challenge gives students a meaningful, hands-on way to put foundational investing principles into practice, make decisions in real time, and build confidence in skills that can shape their financial futures.”

The program maps to Vanguard’s investing principles, CEE Standards, and the CFA Investment Foundations exam, so students are not just competing — they’re building credential-ready skills.  

For teachers, students and individuals who’d like to learn more, click here.

About CEE: 

The Council for Economic Education’s (CEE’s) mission is to equip K–12 students with the tools and knowledge of personal finance and economics so that they can make better decisions for themselves, their families and their communities. We carry out our mission in three ways. We advocate to require financial and economic education in every state. We provide training, tools and resources — online and live through over 180 affiliates nationwide — to more than 40,000 teachers annually, who in turn bring the highest quality economics and personal finance instruction to over 4 million students. We deepen knowledge and introduce high school students to critical career capabilities through our national competitions and Invest in Girls program. Learn more at CouncilForEconEd.org and on LinkedIn and on Facebook

About Vanguard: 

Founded in 1975, Vanguard is one of the world’s leading investment management companies. The firm offers investments, advice, and retirement services to tens of millions of individual investors around the globe—directly, through workplace plans, and through financial intermediaries. Vanguard operates under a unique, investor-owned structure where Vanguard fund shareholders own the funds, which in turn own Vanguard. As such, Vanguard adheres to a simple purpose: To take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success.  

PR contacts:  

Council for Economic Education: Jennifer Zawadzinski, 422219@email4pr.com, 201-486-3593Vanguard: 422219@email4pr.com 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/council-for-economic-education-launches-national-investment-challenge-with-vanguards-new-my-classroom-investor-simulation-302873497.html

SOURCE Council for Economic Education + Vanguard

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Caylent Makes Fast Company’s Eighth Annual List of the Best Workplaces for Innovators in Emerging Enterprise: 201-999 Employees

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Joining honorees such as Anthropic, Chipotle, American Express, and many others

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Fast Company has announced its eighth annual Best Workplaces for Innovators list, recognizing businesses that are creating cultures where innovation can thrive at every level. Caylent earned a spot as a winner in the Emerging Enterprise: 201–999 Employees category. Caylent’s recognition reflects a year of deliberate investment in employee-led innovation.

The 2026 Best Workplaces for Innovators list recognizes 100 companies across industries such as entertainment, biotech, consumer packaged goods, marketing, education, and healthcare. To be considered, applicants detailed their investment in innovation, internal programs, and company culture. Fast Company’s editors evaluated each application and conducted extensive research to develop a score for each company. A distinguished panel of judges then reviewed the top-rated companies to determine the final honorees.

Caylent’s recognition as a Fast Company Best Workplace for Innovators reflects a commitment to innovation that predates the current AI wave. Years before generative AI reshaped professional services, Caylent’s engineers noticed that the most time-consuming parts of cloud delivery (schema conversion, dependency mapping, code translation) were repetitive rather than strategic. That insight became the foundation for Caylent Accelerate™, the company’s proprietary agentic delivery framework built on Amazon Bedrock. It has since grown into a full portfolio: Database Modernization (up to 3x faster migrations), Cloud Migration (which helped earn Caylent AWS Global Migration Partner of the Year and AWS Global GenAI Partner of the Year), Application Modernization, which uses coordinated agentic fleets to rewrite and refactor legacy applications up to 4x faster, and the newest addition, Caylent Accelerate for Agentic Cloud Operations leveraging 12 years of proprietary CloudOps intelligence to anticipate, optimize, and evolve environments. Each evolution reflects the same principle: professional services built on decades of delivery experience, continuously reimagined through new technology rather than replaced by it.

That same instinct for innovation extends inward. Caylent rolled out Claude Enterprise, including Claude Code, to every employee company-wide – not just technical teams – supported by office hours, a dedicated Slack community, and a free AI fluency course. That investment is reinforced by EVO, Caylent’s internal AI platform built around a proprietary Global Context Manager that lets any employee semantically search across Salesforce, Jira, Slack, Notion, Google Drive, GitHub, and AWS documentation at once, and by the Builders team, an internal product studio in the CTO organization that ships new tools nearly every week based on direct employee feedback. Together, these investments have made innovation a habit rather than an initiative; one where ideas from any corner of the company have a clear path to becoming real, adopted tools.

“Everything we do at Caylent, we do so our customers can move faster,” said Valerie Henderson, CEO at Caylent. “AI isn’t a feature we bolted onto professional services; it’s the foundation we build on. For years our teams kept hitting the same friction, so instead of accepting it, they solved it. That’s how Caylent Accelerate went from an idea to how we operate. Staying dynamic and experimenting isn’t optional for us; it’s what lets us keep showing up better for the people we serve. This recognition tells us that bet was the right one.”

“The most innovative workplaces don’t simply ask their employees to come up with great ideas; they create the conditions that make great ideas possible,” says Brendan Vaughan, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “This year’s honorees understand that innovation is ultimately a cultural commitment that requires empowering people to think differently, take risks, and turn ideas into actions. We’re proud to recognize the companies and executives who are leading by example.”

The full list of honorees is available at https://www.fastcompany.com/best-workplaces-for-innovators/list.

The Fast Company Best Workplaces for Innovators issue (Fall 2026) is available online now and will hit newsstands on September 22.

About Fast Company
Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow business publication Inc. For more information, please visit fastcompany.com.

About Caylent
Since 2015, Caylent has grown alongside organizations modernizing on AWS. It is the operating partner they trust to build, run, and evolve intelligent systems at scale. As an AWS Premier Tier Services Partner, Anthropic Preferred Services Partner, and AWS Managed Services Provider, with ten Partner of the Year Awards including GenAI, Migration, and Security Consulting Partner of the Year in 2025, Caylent combines deep AWS expertise, proprietary accelerators, and an agentic delivery system to move organizations from idea to impact, faster. Learn more at caylent.com.

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SOURCE Caylent

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ANTHBOT R7 Series Sweeps Twelve Honors at IFA 2026 with Robotic-Arm Edge Trimming

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The next-generation AWD robotic mower integrates robotic-arm technology into autonomous mowing to enable zero-gap edge trimming.

BERLIN, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — ANTHBOT, an innovator in intelligent lawn robotics, received twelve industry and media honors at IFA 2026 for its new R7 Series robotic mower, including being named an IFA Innovation Award 2026 Honoree. Featuring the EdgeEase™ robotic arm for zero-gap edge trimming, the AWD R7 Series addresses a persistent challenge in robotic mowing: lawn edges that often still require manual trimming.

Closing the Edge-Trimming Gap

While robotic mowers have automated much of routine lawn maintenance, edges along walls and fences often still require manual trimming. The R7 Series addresses this with its EdgeEase™ robotic arm, which extends beyond the mower body to trim along lawn edges as part of the autonomous mowing process.

Beyond edge trimming, the R7 Series combines a 6-motor AWD system with cameras and LiDAR for navigation on slopes and uneven terrain, while infrared thermal-signal detection helps identify animals hidden in the grass—automating more of the mowing process and reducing manual work for homeowners.

Recognized by Leading Tech Media

German technology publications CHIP and Computer Bild both named the R7 Series a Messe Highlight at IFA 2026. CHIP highlighted its integration of edge trimming, multi-sensor navigation and terrain-handling capabilities, while Computer Bild focused on the extendable trimming arm and its ability to trim lawn edges while mowing. The R7 Series also drew coverage from Netzwelt and Android Headlines.

“We believe truly simple lawn care is about giving homeowners less to do, not simply making a mower easier to operate,” said Gavin Guo, CEO of ANTHBOT. “With the R7 Series, we are bringing more of the work involved in lawn care—including edge trimming—into the autonomous process.”

About ANTHBOT

ANTHBOT develops intelligent robotic mowers that make lawn care easier and more effortless. Guided by its mission of “Invisible in the yard. Reclaim your time,” the brand brings autonomous lawn care to homeowners in more than 30 countries. ANTHBOT is a top-selling robotic lawn mower brand on Amazon Germany with products also available through major European retailers including BAUHAUS, Boulanger, Elkjøp, Salling Group, and Landi. For more information, visit anthbot.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/anthbot-r7-series-sweeps-twelve-honors-at-ifa-2026-with-robotic-arm-edge-trimming-302873971.html

SOURCE ANTHBOT

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AI Is Changing How Consumers Find Local Businesses — Is Your Business Being Recommended?

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2026 research finds AI use for local business recommendations jumped from 6% to 45% among U.S. consumers. In support of local businesses, Cybertegic created a quick AI search enhancement guide to help businesses gain better visibility in AI search results and attract more customers. 

PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Artificial intelligence is becoming a more common part of how consumers research local businesses, adding a new layer of digital visibility alongside traditional search.

Cybertegic, a Pasadena-based digital marketing and web development agency, has published new guidance examining how businesses can make their online information easier for AI-powered search platforms to identify, interpret, and reference.

Key Statistics: AI and Local Business Discovery

Recent 2026 consumer research found that 45% of U.S. consumers have used AI tools for local business recommendations in the past 12 months, up from 6% in 2025.

Among consumers who have used AI for local recommendations, 63% said they trust AI-generated recommendations. At the same time, 88% said they check the source or legitimacy of information presented by AI.

The findings suggest that AI is becoming part of the business discovery process, while reviews, websites, and other established sources continue to play an important role in how consumers verify information.

What AI Visibility Adds to Traditional SEO

For years, businesses have measured online visibility largely through search engine rankings, website traffic, and local listings. AI-generated answers introduce another consideration: whether a business is represented clearly enough for AI systems to understand its services, locations, and authority.

A company can maintain established search rankings and a strong website while appearing differently across AI-generated results.

“Businesses have spent years asking, ‘How do we rank higher on Google?’ Now they also need to ask, ‘Does AI know who we are, what we do, and why it should recommend us?'” said Johnny Chou, CEO of Cybertegic.

Traditional search engine optimization remains relevant. AI-powered search adds another environment in which business information can be interpreted and presented to consumers.

Demonstrated AI Visibility in Local Search

Using the methodology outlined in its AI Search Survival Guide, Cybertegic has helped local businesses gain visibility in AI-generated search results for location-specific service queries.

Through this work, a probate mortgage financing business appeared in a Google AI Overview for a Pasadena, California, search, while a family law firm appeared among ChatGPT-generated recommendations for a Monterey Park, California, query.

These results demonstrate Cybertegic’s experience in helping businesses strengthen the digital signals that AI systems use to understand their services, relevance, and geographic context.

AI-generated visibility can vary depending on the platform, query, location, timing, and other factors, so results may differ across searches and AI systems.

AI Search Guidance

Cybertegic’s AI Search Survival Guide covers eight strategies for improving how business information is structured, supported, and presented across AI-powered search environments.

Source Note: Consumer statistics are from the Local Consumer Review Survey 2026, based on a representative SurveyMonkey panel of 1,002 U.S. adults. AI-specific findings included responses from 455 consumers who reported using AI tools for local business recommendations within the previous 12 months. The AI findings were published March 10, 2026.

Source: BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2026

About Cybertegic

Cybertegic is a Pasadena, California-based digital marketing and web development agency with more than 25 years of experience in digital marketing, technology, and online business. Its services include search engine optimization, AI visibility optimization, paid advertising, ecommerce marketing, social media marketing, and website design and development.

Media Contact:
Jennifer Huynh, Marketing Manager
marketing.manager@cybertegic.com
626-810-3763
www.cybertegic.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ai-is-changing-how-consumers-find-local-businesses–is-your-business-being-recommended-302872662.html

SOURCE Cybertegic

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