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A team of Fordham students defeated teams from NYU, Cornell, Princeton, Yale and a number of other schools before going down in defeat at the New York Federal Reserve Bank’s “Fed Challenge” on Friday, Nov. 20. Fordham’s team was just one point shy of the total needed to move on to the next level, with Rutgers University taking away the top prize at the district level.
The competition tasks students with playing the role of the Federal Open Market Committee and making specific monetary policy recommendations. The teams begin by making a 20-minute presentation in which they analyze the current economic climate before recommending a certain course of action. They then participate in a 15-minute question and answer session with a panel of judges composed of economists and educators in the field.
Fordham’s team – which consists of economics majors Andrew Vigliotta, FCRH ’10, Filippo Bianchi, FCRH ’11, Robert Pergament, FCRH ’10; and business students Anu Joseph CBA ’10 and Michael Cropano, CBA ’10 – was one out of seven out of the starting 30 to move on to the district semi-final round. Mary Burke, Ph.D., clinical associate professor and associate chair for undergraduate education at Fordham, served as the team’s faculty advisor.
“Even though we missed finals by one point, I wouldn’t change a thing about our presentation,” Vigliotta said. “We were honest and we balanced each other out. The program forced me to learn and own what I have learned as an economics major.”
Teams are graded on a 10-point scale based on their understanding of the Federal Reserve, macroeconomic theory and monetary policy, in addition to their presentation skills and depth of research. The winning team at the district level goes on to the national competition at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C., where they compete for a chance to win $15,000 and an additional $10,000 prize for their school.
Although Fordham did not advance to the finals for a chance to compete for the prize money, the members said they came away from the experience happy to have participated.
“My participation in the Fed Challenge was one of the best experiences of my Fordham career,” Joseph said. “Beyond the massive amount of knowledge I gained on the Fed and monetary policy, working with my fellow group members and especially Professor Burke was rewarding in itself.”
Bianchi, who hails from Milan, Italy, echoed that sentiment.
“The Challenge was not only a competition under the economic point of view, it was something deeper,” he said. “Besides learning about the Fed and the economy, we learned about true friendship, hard work and setting a goal. After all, as the Romans use to say, ‘per aspera ad atra’: ‘through difficulties, we reach the stars.’”
Robert Pergament is news editor of The Ram.
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