Westminster Team Takes First Place in Economics Competition

A team of students in faculty member Peter Briggs’ AP Economics course competed in the National Economics Challenge Wild Card Competition this spring and came in first in the Adam Smith Division in Connecticut. The students included Albert Gao ’18, Vlad Ivanchuk ’19, John Kuzminskas ’18 and Chris Whipple ’18. They named their team “To Small Too Fail.”

 

Every year, the Council for Economic Education hosts the National Economics Challenge (NEC) in which high school students apply their knowledge of economics and work in teams. This year, 11,000 students participated in the NEC. Competitions are held at the state, national semifinal and national final levels in two divisions: Adam Smith for AP, IB and advanced students, and David Ricardo for beginners. In each competition, teams of students answer rigorous questions on microeconomics, macroeconomics, international economics and current events. The Wild Card Competition is a state-level competition of the NEC.

 

As the highest-scoring team in Connecticut’s Adam Smith Division, the Westminster team competed in the national semifinals. Although the Westminster team failed to make it to the national finals in New York City (top eight teams only), it came in 18th in the nation in the top division (Adam Smith) against several thousand teams nationwide.