For release: March 15, 2002
Contact: Dawn Griffitts, (314) 444-8421; Charles B. Henderson, (314) 444-8311

Marquette Wins St. Louis Area "Fed Challenge"

ST. LOUIS -- A team of six students from Marquette High School in Chesterfield, Mo., won the St. Louis area "Fed Challenge," an economics competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. A team from Clayton High captured second place.

The students from Marquette are Krystal Clay, Allison Hartman, Thomson Kao, Silpa Kaza, Melissa Subramanian and Theresa Chiu (alternate). Their teacher is Eva Johnston. The coach for the Marquette team is Paul Christopher.

The students from Clayton High are Naveen Muthu, Alina Poneiwaz, Ben Hjele, and Sara Johnson. Their teacher is Lary Baker. The other schools that fielded teams were Parkway Central, Beaumont High School, St. Thomas Aquinas and Linton Preparatory Academy.

Each team made a 15-minute presentation, based on their research of economic conditions and reflecting their recommended course of action for monetary policy. These presentations were made before a panel of judges in a mock Federal Open Market Committee format. The teams then answered questions based on their presentations and research.

The judges for the competition were Rachel Balbach, former chief economist at Boatmen's National Bank; Ted Balbach, former director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Sarapage McCorkle, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis; Mary Anne Pettit, associate director of the Office of Economic Education at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville; Cletus Coughlin, vice president and associate director of research at the St. Louis Fed; and Jim Bullard, an assistant vice president and economist at the St. Louis Fed.

On April 3, the Marquette team will compete in Memphis at the Eighth Federal Reserve District competition against the winning teams from the St. Louis Fed's branches in Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis. The winner will represent the Eighth District at the Federal Reserve System's national competition May 4-6 in Washington, D.C.

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' territory encompasses all of Arkansas, eastern Missouri, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. In addition to serving as a bank for depository institutions and the U.S. government, each Reserve Bank monitors economic conditions in the District, participates in formulating monetary policy, and supervises state-chartered member banks and bank holding companies to foster safety and soundness of the District's banking and financial institutions and to protect the credit rights of consumers.

Back to top