Marshall University students had the opportunity to express their opinions in a Federal Reserve mock challenge in Richmond, Va.
Seven business students competed in the College Fed Challenge on Oct. 26. The students were required to analyze the current economic conditions and recommend how the Federal Reserve should take action.
“This is our second year in doing this, and I think it is very educational to the students,” said Roger Adkins, division head of finance and economics. “It’s a lot of self work because a great amount of work is done outside of class.”
The Lewis College of Business had a meeting in the spring semester for business students who were interested in learning about the Federal Reserve and participating in the project.
“I was interested because it seemed like a challenge, and it wasn’t your typical class,” said Elizabeth Truex, senior finance major from Tallmadge, Ohio.
“I had Money and Banking with Dr. Adkins in the spring; he explained what the program was, and it made me become more interested in economics,” said Brandon Smith, senior history, economics and political science major from Glen Dale, W.Va.
After showing interest in the spring, students were given assignments to complete over the summer. After students finished the assignments, they were permitted to register for CN 480 Advanced Monetary Analysis.
“We did research and familiarized ourselves with concepts over the summer,” Smith said. “When the fall semester started, we started work right away.”
For the challenge, students are required to identify, analyze and discuss significant economic, financial and international issues in their presentations and recommend tactics to correct the issues.
“We were working three hours a week each day after our classes for six to seven straight weeks working on our presentation,” Truex said. “Everyone had different things they were in charge of knowing such as gross domestic product, labor markets, inflation, federal facilities and fiscal policies.”
“We had to do a lot of keeping up on current events like with the economy and Obama’s spending,” Smith said.
After months of putting together their presentations and practicing in front of professors, communities and classes, the students traveled to Richmond to compete against Virginia schools such as Liberty, Old Dominion and James Madison. The team gave its presentation in front of a panel of judges from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Truex said the team was three points short of moving on to the next round.
“We were pretty excited and proud we were only three points from moving on to the next round,” Truex said.
After the competition was over, the students were finished with the class. The students will write a reflection about the experience and what they recommend for next year.
“I was able to use all the things I ever learned,” Truex said. “You don’t appreciate how much you have learned until it you can put it all together to use.”
“For me it was a great learning experience; it was like learning a new language,” Smith said. “I learned more through this experience than I would have in a regular classroom. I would recommend this experience to economics and finance students because it’s students teaching each other.”
Deanna Bailey can be contacted at bailey360@marshall.edu.
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