St. Lawrence University Fed Challenge Team tackles real-world financial challenges

CANTON -- St. Lawrence University's Fed Challenge team took part in a virtual National College Fed Challenge recently thanks in large part to a strategic partnership with a local banking institution and multiple alumni who offered a guiding hand.

The competition encourages students to deepen their understanding of the U.S. economy and the role of the Federal Reserve System while emulating the role of monetary policymakers as they analyze current economic and financial conditions and recommend a course of action-including adjusting interest rates.

"This class is unique in that it's 100-percent experiential learning, and it's student led, so it's an opportunity for students in a major that tends to have larger classes to have a smaller, hands-on experience," says Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics Cynthia Bansak, who teaches the Fed Challenge course.

Although the course officially convenes in the fall, the team began preparing for the Fed Challenge competition last May and met biweekly on Zoom through much of the summer. During those weeks, students completed online certifications so they could use the proprietary terminals in the University's Bloomberg Finance Lab once they returned to campus. During class meetings, Bansak guided discussions on the labor market, housing costs, and the stickiness of inflation.

Over mid-semester break in October, Bansak and all 12 students traveled to New York City to present their recommendation to Laurentians at key financial institutions, where they were able to get valuable feedback and network. The course was supported in part by a gift from North Country Savings Bank.

"The alumni help tremendously," Bansak says. "It's a really special connection we have as members of the SLU community."

Competition was fierce this year, and teams from a variety of prestigious institutions, including Princeton and Harvard, made strong presentations. Although the St. Lawrence team did not advance to the finals, they made the University proud, Bansak says. "Our SLU students always have creative, non-vanilla policy recommendations, even though it's typically pretty clear what the Fed will do. This year it was less obvious," she explains.

Hill-Edgar attributes that, in part, to the unique liberal arts environment at St. Lawrence. "When you talk about a St. Lawrence liberal arts education, the whole point is to have all these different people with different skills and backgrounds come together," he says. "That's what happens with this challenge-students with talents in writing, data analysis, coding, and public speaking all came together."