Washington, D.C. – Every year, the Federal Reserve holds a national competition for undergraduate students called the College Fed Challenge. It’s a team competition in which participants analyze current economic and financial conditions and formulate monetary policy recommendations, modeling the Federal Open Market Committee, also known as the FOMC.
A few participants from the 2016 event shared their thoughts. Lauren Futter, a student from the University of Chicago, felt that participating in the event is important, “to understand the role of the Federal Reserve because of the Fed’s dual mandate, looking at unemployment and inflation really crucially impacts everyone in the economy.”
A student from the Rutgers University team, which won the 2016 competition, Ali Haider Ismail, agreed, “Knowing monetary policy, knowing how that plays a role in the economy is really important, especially, you know, for being like an educated citizen, being able to listen to the news and act critically.”
Andrew Lee, a teammate of Ismail, also spoke of how the Feds’ work affects the public, “The policies that they set affect our everyday lives even if we don’t feel it, everything that we do, our credit cards, our spending, our habits, inflation expectations, and also in terms of financial stability.”
While many of the participants are majoring in economics, students with other focuses also found the experience of Fed Challenge valuable. Ararat Gocmen, a history major from Princeton University, expressed, “Wherever I end up, that knowledge that I gained about the way the Fed functions, the way the economy functions, and the precise detailed way is going to be valuable to me in whatever field I end up working in.”
Jacqueline Hundley, a student from Appalachian State University, felt that she learned more from the experience than she would from a class, “I’m learning more about what the actual Fed is talking about today as opposed to just theoretical policies.”
Ismail noted how much easier his economics courses have become from his participation in the competition, “I can just walk in and I’ve already done all the research. A lot of my research positions I’ve been able to get because of being part of the Fed Challenge team.”
Futter agreed, “I have learned so much about so many different aspects of the Fed that prior to joining Fed Challenge I had no idea even existed.”
Gocmen was glad that he participated, offering, “It’s just a great experience to get people interested in this activity, I think, the way it’s done, by letting us, like, be with Chair Yellen, by letting us be in the Board room experiencing what a meeting actually feels like.”
More information about the College Fed Challenge is available on the Federal Reserve’s website.
Video producing, editing, voice over, and writing by Amanda Mosher