January 12, 2006

Students ace Fed Challenge again

For the second year in a row, Northwestern won the College Fed Challenge at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. Winning this competition brought the students and Northwestern a prize of $25,000 from the Moody’s, Inc. 

Sixty schools prepared teams, including Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Columbia, Cornell, Boston College, Rutgers, Harvard, Lafayette, and finalists Mount St. Mary’s College and SUNY-Geneseo.

By winning the Illinois and then the Midwest Regional Champion-ships, Northwestern’s team advanced to the finals. The team went before Chairman Alan Greenspan and a panel of judges chosen from Federal Reserve economists to make a presentation about what the Fed’s monetary policy should be, given the state of the economy, and then answer questions about the Federal Reserve, the state of the economy, and macroeconomic theory.

Northwestern’s team was made up of five students: 

Aditya Damani of Mumbai, India (senior, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, economics and electrical engineering, a member of the 2004 championship team)

Derek Moeller of Wakarusa, Kan. (senior, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, economics, a member of the 2004 championship team)

Kevin Rodrigues of Nairobi, Kenya (senior, Weinberg College, economics, also transportation and logistics)

Jeanne Ruan of Carmel, Ind. (sophomore, Weinberg College, economics and mathematical methods in the social sciences)

Reed Van Gorden of Boulder, Col. (senior, Weinberg College, economics and chemistry).