With the economies of Europe and the U.S. being front page news, you'll have many resources available to you to prepare your team. How can you best use those resources? You will learn techniques at our Euro Challenge Orientation on January 26 at our Detroit Branch. The program will run from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. Please contact us via e-mail to register.

The Euro Challenge brings global studies to life in your classroom. Students will study the euro and focus on economic conditions in one euro area country. They will present their findings to economists frrom around the world in Chicago on March 28, 2012, or in Michigan on March 26, 3012.

 

• Extensive training information and webinars online 
• Open to high school students in grades 9 and 10
• Facebook, Vimeo and Delicious resources available
• Team registration dealine: December 1, 2011
• Teacher orientation in Detroit: January 26, 2011

Euro Challenge 2011 - International Academy Central presentation from Euro Challenge on Vimeo.

 

A team from the Bloomfield Hill, MI, in the Seventh District took on schools from New Jersey and brought home the gold from the national competition in April. The competed against Montclair High School and Rumson-Fair High School at the nationals held in New York City. Sophomores Ronnie Basin, Hussein Hakim, Swathi Shanmugasundaram, Danielle Paglia and Ana Karina Chaves won with a presentation on high unemployment in Spain.

Now that the 2011 competition is history, you can start to plan your strategy for the 2012 Euro Challenge. Your team might be the one that takes high honors! 

 

There's a wealth of resources available — everything from a Facebook page to a Delicious feed to videos, for a start. You can also follow our Twitter feed (@chicagofed) for the latest updates (#EC). Check them out; you might find yourself heading to New York in the Spring!

ECB: Price Stability - Why Is It Important for You? from Euro Challenge on Vimeo.

For Lake Forest High School, from Lake Forest, Illinois, the second time's the charm. In 2009, they placed second in the District competition. They returned to the Chicago Fed on March 26, 2010, looking to take first place. The team of five students from the high school, coached by teacher Chris Bryant, won the first round of the 2010 Midwest Euro Challenge competition

 

The second place winners, led by their coach, teacher Christine LaRue, represented Elgin High School, Elgin, Illinois, and took their first walk in the winners circle this year. The teams may meet again when they both compete at the semi-finals in New York City on April 26.

The Euro Challenge is an exciting educational opportunity for high school students (grades 9 and 10) to learn about the European Union and the euro. In a nationwide competition, student teams are asked to:

1. Describe the current economic situation in the euro area.
2. Select one economic-related challenge confronting the euro area as a whole and pick one of the 16 member countries to illustrate that challenge.
3. Recommend a policy or policies to address the challenge in the selected country.

Teams from Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Indiana compete in a first round at the Chicago Fed. Teams from Michigan compete at the University of Michigan for the first round. Winning teams go to New York City for the final round and are eligible to win cash prizes and a trip to Washington, DC made possible by the Moody’s Foundation.

It's never too soon to begin preparing for the next Euro Challenge. There's a Facebook blog, a discussion forum, and even videos to help you get a head start on the competition.