Bentley University won the national title at the seventh annual College Fed Challenge held at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. on November 30, 2010. Bentley placed first among teams from Lafayette College, Northwestern University, Rutgers University at Newark, and Virginia Commonwealth University. The finals were held in the Boardroom at the Board of Governors as the capstone to district competitions.
Under the guidance of Bentley economics professors David Gulley and Aaron Jackson, the Bentley team represented the First Federal Reserve District after winning the regional competition on November 15. In the previous district competitions, Bentley competed against teams from MIT, Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Boston College, Boston University, Tufts University, and ten others. Sponsored by the Federal Reserve System, the team competition for undergraduate college students is based on a monetary policy debate of the Federal Open Market Committee.
Bentley team members include the following Economics-Finance majors:
• Maximillian Barco, Senior
• Christina J. Harstad, Senior
• Satyajeet Jadhavrao, Junior
• Pranay Kumar Jain, Junior
• Shohana Jannat, Junior
• Peter Jurik, Senior
• David Norrish, Senior
• Victoria Lee Tran, Senior
“This is such a tremendous accomplishment for our students and Bentley,” Jackson says. “It's gratifying to think that our team put their brains, talent, and hard work up against so many of the elite schools in the country and came out on top. That says something about the dedication, talent, and creativity that our team, and Bentley students in general, possess.”
During each competition, teams play the role of members of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve's monetary policymaking body. Competing teams give 20-minute presentations and make a monetary policy recommendation or decision. They are judged by a panel of Federal Reserve economists on economic analysis, responses to questions, teamwork, and presentation. College teams compete in their local Reserve Bank Districts, and top teams move on to the finals in Washington, D.C.
The competition encourages students to learn about the U.S. economy, monetary policymaking, and the role of the Federal Reserve System in the economy. The competition is also aimed at fostering students' interests in economics and finance as fields for advanced study and careers.
Bentley has competed in the Fed Challenge since 2007. In the first year, Bentley advanced to the second round regional competition. In 2008, the team narrowly missed advancing to the second round. The 2009 team took second place in the regional competition.