November 18, 2009
On November 5, 2009, a team of undergraduate Tobin students
participated in the Federal Reserve College FED Challenge. The
Tobin team included undergraduate students Abiola Avinde, John
Hohos, Lucas Kawa, Sunil Pandey, Thang Viet Dao, Ujala Tajammal,
and Xiuhan Hu.
This year the Challenge was co-sponsored by the Eastern
Economics Association (EEA) and the first round was held at the
Sheraton Hotel in New York. The EEA is a not-for-profit corporation
whose object is to promote educational and scholarly exchange on
economic affairs.The fundamental requirement for competing in the
challenge includes a profound interest in macroeconomics, monetary
policy and politics. A team's participation involves two parts: a
20-minute presentation and a 15-minute Q&A session led by a
panel of judges comprised of economics professionals, college
faculty and/or Fed staff.
The strategy of this year’s Tobin team was to gather the most
recent data of all the leading and lagging economic indicators that
supported their argument, which was approached using a Federal Open
Market Committee format and highlighted both Keynesian and
monetarist points of view. The judges of this year’s challenge
found this strategy to be unique and liked that the Tobin’s team
debate was derived from two different economic schools of
thought.
“The team’s greatest strengths were their ability to perform
without reading from a script, their comprehension of the
monetarist and Keynesian methodologies for making monetary and
fiscal policy, and their answers to the judge’s questions,” said
Faculty Advisor and Professor of Economics, Dr. Joyce Furfero. “I
am confident that they scored very well this year, despite the fact
that they did not make it into the semi-finals.”
Last year, 25 teams competed and only five teams went on to the
semi-finals. This year the competition was expanded to 33 teams and
seven teams went to the semi-finals, which will be held on Nov
20.
“I feel our strengths as a team lay in our confidence that we
were capable of making it to the next round. All members of the
team had excellent presentation skills, but I also feel that if
we had gotten an earlier jump start on organizing and
preparing, as well as ensuring team member commitment, we could
drastically improve the team’s performance next year,” said team
member Abiola Avinde.
The Peter J. Tobin College of Business has provided the highest
quality business education for over eighty years. Many alumni
have risen to senior executive positions in the financial services
community in New York and around the world. Degrees offered
include the Bachelor of Science, Master of Business Administration
and Master of Science. The College encompasses the School of
Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science, which is housed
at the University’s Manhattan location in the heart of the New York
financial district. Recent recognitions for the Tobin College
include a listing by The Aspen Institute among the top ninety
business schools in the United States whose graduate curricula
reflect a commitment to social responsibility and sustainability.
For further information, please contact Jennifer Maizel at (718)
990-6218 or email Maizelj@stjohns.edu. ###