Economic knowledge paved the way to victory for a group of Carmel High School students during national and international competitions.
On May 22, four students from CHS competed against three other teams from New York, New Hampshire and Georgia in the 2023 National Economics Challenge in New York. The Carmel team took the lead midway through the competition and won by a four-point margin. They advanced to internationals, where they won in a virtual match against China.
NEC is the only national economics competition in the U.S for high school students. It challenges participants on micro and macroeconomic principles as well as their knowledge about the global economy.
CHS economics teacher and team coach Michelle Foutz said the team’s knowledge of economics was largely accrued by taking the school’s economics courses. Books and the internet were not allowed while preparing for the challenges, said Jordan Seigel, one of the team members.
Seigel, 18, said team members took most of the same classes, such as AP History. General knowledge allowed them each to focus on one topic. As a team, they had diverse economic knowledge that allowed them to answer a variety of questions.
“It’s more advantageous for everyone to know different things,” Seigel said. “We each had our own thing.”
Team members said they were nervous going into the final competition because they were up against impressive schools. Out of 22 questions, they missed only three during the national competition.
At the international competition, they got every question correct while facing China. As national champions, each teammate won a personal cash prize as well as $5,000 for Carmel High School.
“I couldn’t be more proud of these kids,” Foutz said. “Besides their incredible knowledge of economics, they are very kind, generous and humble.”
