Central High School Captures Top Honors for the Second Straight Year at National...

Central High School Captures Top Honors for the Second Straight Year at
National 'Fed Challenge' Championship

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- For the second year in a row, a
team of students from Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., captured first
place in the Federal Reserve's National "Fed Challenge," an economics
competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve System. The Central High team is
the only open-enrollment urban public school to win, and the second school to
repeat a national championship win in the competition's history.
The team advanced to the finals by winning the Eighth Federal Reserve
District competition at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis last month. The
aspiring monetary policymakers who made up Central High's team were Aaron
Campbell, Brent Sodman, John Deloach, Cameron Zohoori and Hilary Ledwell.
Farhan Syed served as an alternate. Their teacher is George West and their
coach and former teammate, Stuart Sherrill, is an undergraduate at the
University of Arkansas-Fayetteville.
The Little Rock team won over strong competition from four other schools:
Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Conn.; University School of Milwaukee,
Wis.; Severn School in Severn Park, Md.; and Marlboro High School in Marlboro,
NJ.
Each team made a 15-minute presentation, based on its research of economic
conditions and reflecting its recommended course of action for monetary
policy. These presentations were made before a panel of judges in a mock
format of the Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve's chief
monetary policymaking body. The teams then answered questions based on their
presentations and research.
"Everyone affiliated with the program in Little Rock is thrilled with
Central High's repeat national championship," said Robert Hopkins, senior
branch executive of the St. Louis Fed's Little Rock Branch. "Central High
School's team is an amazing group of naturally curious students who are
enamored with the Fed and monetary policy -- that's what it takes to persevere
in this competition."
The judges for the national finals were William Poole, former president of
the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Frederick S. Mishkin, member of the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; and Nigel Nagarajan,
counselor for the Delegation of the European Commission to the United States.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks
that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., comprise the
Federal Reserve System. As the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve
System formulates U.S. monetary policy, regulates state-chartered member banks
and bank holding companies, provides payment services to financial
institutions and the U.S. government, and promotes community development and
financial education.
SOURCE Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Billy J. Britt, Office, +1-501-324-8368, Mobile, +1-501-607-0522,
billy.j.britt@stls.frb.org, or Adriene L. Mathes, Office, +1-314-444-7471,
Mobile, +1-314-852-5968, adriene.l.mathes@stls.frb.org, both of Federal
Reserve Bank of St. Louis