“They’re getting outstanding training and they’re not scared to use it. They’re able to go out and use it right away, that’s what we’re after,” said Voehringer Professor of economics Robert Williams about the Guilford Fed Challenge team. “People who are going out there and changing the world aren’t people memorizing things from textbooks.” On Nov. 5, Guilford placed as a finalist in the 2008 Charlotte Federal Reserve Challenge after competing among 12 North and South Carolina schools. They were outranked only by UNC-Chapel Hill.
This regional academic competition encourages a better understanding of the nation’s central bank, the forces influencing economic conditions in the United States and abroad, and the way the economy affects everyone.
Students made 20-minute presentations on monetary policy and were scored on content, teamwork, response to questions, presentation and style.
“We had to use economic indicators up until the day of the competition and advise the Federal Reserve on how they should change the federal fund’s target rate,” said senior economics major Jason Shrader. “After the competition the judges gave feedback. They said we did an amazing job and that we answered all the questions they had prepared in our presentation, so the questions they asked were on the spot.”
“The team made unorthodox original analysis, which is Guilford by the way, taking the judges off-guard,” said Williams. “They changed the minds of the judges about what’s happening (with the financial crisis).”
Williams announced the contest to his economics of financial crisis class at the beginning of the semester. Senior economics majors Kevin Bohm, Sarah Gehring, Jason Shrader, Osama Sabbah and junior economics major Daniel McCurdy took the initiative to form a team.
According to Shrader, many of the schools competing have an entire course built around this contest, spending the entire semester doing their research inside the classroom. Most other schools also had their coaches with them during the presentation.
“I didn’t have to do direct training because they already knew how to do an effective analysis,” said Williams. “They have training in basic skills on how to do original research, collect data, analyze data and present in an effective way.”
“I think it reflects how strong our economics department is,” said Shrader. “We did something in a week-and-a-half that top-tier schools take a semester to do,” “We weren’t allowed to tell the judges the name of our school so it wasn’t like we did well for this tiny liberal arts college.”
With training built into previous courses, the team expressed confidence not only in their ability to compete with top-tier schools in the area, but also to impress professionals in the field.
“When we were in the boardroom I felt very comfortable,” said Bohm. “I think especially our training in presentations helped us. The way we’ve been trained in economics is we conduct research and then present it in front of class. So in a way it was familiar. That was perhaps the greatest benefit of the Guilford economics department.”
As a reward for placing as finalists in the competition, members of the Fed Challenge team received a $100 savings bond and an invitation participate in a “Day at the Fed” in the spring, allowing them to explore opportunities working for the Federal Reserve.
“This experience made my aspirations of working at the Fed even clearer,” said Bohm.