Elon students recently placed second in the College Fed Challenge held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond’s Charlotte branch office.
The College Fed Challenge competition is a simulation of an Open Federal Market Committee meeting. Economics and business students were tasked to undertake research, analyze data on current economic conditions and decide on an appropriate action for monetary policy. Students delivered 20-minute presentations and were scored on content, teamwork, responses to questions, presentation and style. Judges included Fed regional economist Richard Kaglic; Evan Sekeris and Jody Martin of the Fed’s supervision, regulation and credit department; and Stephen Day of the North Carolina Council on Economic Education.
The Elon team consisted of Thomas Gutierrez ’13, Brian McGerigle ’12, George Piland ’13, Charles Rice ’13, Justin Wanner ’13, Thomas Whyel ’13, and content advisors Zachary Power ’12, Jordan Duffey ’13 and Marshall Holmes ’14. Economics professors Jennifer Platania and Vitaliy Strohush coached the team.
This was Elon’s first year participating in the annual competition, which included teams from Anderson University, Appalachian State University, Clemson University, Davidson College, Gardner-Webb University, Lenoir-Rhyne University, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and Winston-Salem State University. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill won the competition.