News Release
St. Joseph's High School Wins Regional Federal Reserve Competition
CHICAGO - A team of five students from St. Joseph's High School of South Bend, IN, today beat out four other high school teams from Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin to claim their second district championship at the Federal Reserve Fed Challenge competition.
The event, held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, gave teams from participating schools a chance to test their knowledge of the economy and the Federal Reserve. The St. Joseph's team, who previously won the regional competition in 2000, will represent the Chicago Fed in the national championship on May 1-3 at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C.
The Fed Challenge was created to encourage greater awareness among students of how the U.S. economy functions and the role of the Federal Reserve in the economy. Each team is required to analyze current economic data, develop a monetary policy recommendation and defend that recommendation in front of a panel of judges. The team prepares a 25-minute demonstration, which encompasses a 15-minute presentation on the economy and a 10-minute period where students answer questions from the judges.
Presentations must include a discussion of economic conditions as of the day of the competition; a forecast of near-term changes in economic, financial and international conditions, such as unemployment and inflation; identification of conditions or situations that warrant attention in the formulation of monetary policy; and a recommendation as to whether the Fed should move to raise or lower interest rates.
St. Joseph's will compete in the national championship against teams from the Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Richmond and St. Louis Federal Reserve Banks as well as the Omaha Branch of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. Judges at the final competition will include members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and presidents of Federal Reserve Banks.
The team members from St. Joseph's are: Sam Fallon, Greg Howard, Spencer McCollester, Jeff Paramore, Phil Pascucci, Ruth Sommese. Their supervising teachers are Julie Chismar and Phil DePauw.
To learn more about the Fed Challenge, visit the the Fed Challenge information section located on the Chicago Fed's Web site.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago is one of 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., constitute the nation's central bank. The Chicago Fed serves the Seventh Federal Reserve District, which encompasses the northern portions of Illinois and Indiana, southern Wisconsin, the lower peninsula of Michigan, and the entire state of Iowa. In addition to providing check processing and other services for financial institutions, each Reserve Bank serves as a bank for the U.S. government, supervises member banks and bank holding companies, monitors economic conditions in its district, and participates in the formulation of national monetary policy.
