For Immediate Release — Friday, November 18, 2005
Contact:
Mary E. McCrank
Media Relations Officer
(585) 245-5516
SUNY Geneseo Students Win Federal Reserve Bank of
New York Competition, Advance to Nationals
GENESEO, N.Y. — A student
team from the State University of New York at Geneseo has won the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York College Fed Challenge, edging out a half-dozen
private schools — including Harvard University and last year's winner,
Rutgers University — throughout a daylong competition Thursday in New
York City.
In the final round, Geneseo beat Rutgers University, Boston
College and Seton Hall University. Earlier in the day, Harvard University, Bard
College and Ramapo College of New Jersey were eliminated in the semi-finals
round.
The team won the $5,000 top prize and an additional $10,000
for Geneseo's Jones School of Business. The Moody's Foundation established the
competition and provides the monetary awards. Geneseo has continuously advanced
in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) competition, placing second
last year and third in 2003.
The team will next compete in the national championship
before the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors on Nov. 28 and 29 in Washington,
D.C. Geneseo will compete against Northwestern University, winner of the
Chicago competition, and another team that is competing today for top prize in
the Richmond, Va., competition, said Lloyd Bromberg, director of educational
programs for the FRBNY. The top performing team will win $15,000 for the team
and $10,000 for their college.
This year's Geneseo student team includes: Mohammed Partapurwala of Brooklyn, N.Y., Kristin Walker of
Williamsville, N.Y., Carolyn Miller of Loudonville, N.Y., Robert Boyd of
Fairport, N.Y., Jenny Syverud of Canandaigua, N.Y., Peter Gray of Rochester,
N.Y., Sergey Zinger of Fairport, N.Y., and A.J. Hameline of Holland Patent,
N.Y.
Leonie L. Stone and Christopher Annala, both assistant
professors of economics at Geneseo, are advisors to the team.
"This is an example of the continuing excellence
demonstrated by SUNY Geneseo's teams in this competition," said Bromberg. "From
the beginning, Lee Stone and students who have made up her teams have always
placed very highly in the competition, which is a testament to the quality of
the economics education at the school."
Jones School of Business Dean Mary Ellen Zuckerman said the
college is thrilled with the students' hard work.
"We are extremely proud of our Fed Challenge team and
delighted with their first-place finish among such keen competition. The
students and advisor Lee Stone have worked extremely hard to hone the team's
research, analytical and presentation skills for this competition," she said.
"The team's outstanding performance is a reflection of the
high quality of the economics program at SUNY Geneseo and the excellent
students who come to Geneseo. A number of faculty members and friends of the
school of business provided useful feedback to the team as well, and we thank
all those supporters. We look forward to this talented team's performance in
the national competition in Washington."
The College Fed Challenge is designed to help business,
finance and economics undergraduates become more knowledgeable about the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the decision-making process of the Federal
Open Market Committee (FOMC), the Federal Reserve's monetary policy-setting
group. Teams of students engage in mock discussions of the Fed's Federal Open
Market Committee that sets short-term interest rates. The teams make a
recommendation about whether to change interest rates and why, just as the real
FOMC does, and must support their analysis and arguments.
The Geneseo team won the Upstate New York competition in
Buffalo on Nov. 4, beating Hamilton College, SUNY Binghamton and Cornell
University.
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