BMCC Student Team Wins First Place, Fourth Year in a Row, in College Fed Challenge

For the fourth year in a row, a team of Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) students led by faculty advisers Business Management Professors Julian Schroeder and Yanni Tournas has won first place in the Maiden Lane Division of the National College Fed Challenge, New York Region.

According to Professor Tournas, a BMCC student team has participated in the competition for more than 10 years and has won the Fed Challenge competition in earlier years, as well.

The 2021 College Fed Challenge student team included Sydney Mills, Business Administration; Carlene Nelson, Small Business Entrepreneurship; Jiyei Noh, Accounting; Bernard Primicias, Financial Management; Alejandra Rodriguez, Financial Management; Ursula Stando, Business Administration; Deep Sukhadwala, Business Administration; Yiyang Sun, Business Administration; Giovanna Tomasetti-Rivas, Forensic Accounting; Danielle Watson, Communication Studies and Demi Zhang, Business Administration.

To prepare for the competition, the students met through the BMCC Finance & Banking Club, where they engaged in rigorous academic discussions of economic concepts and practiced presentation skills.

According to the College Fed Challenge website, the competition brings real-world economics into the classroom. Teams play the role of monetary policymakers by analyzing economic conditions and recommending a course for monetary policy.

Through the experience of competing for the Fed Challenge, students increase their understanding of macroeconomics and the Federal Reserve’s role in setting U.S. monetary policy and ensuring financial stability.

“BMCC students who take part in the College Fed Challenge are distinguished by their academic commitment and dedicated study of the Federal Reserve’s role in setting economic policy. They won first place in the 2021 College Fed Challenge in the Maiden Lane Division because of their knowledge but also because of their ability to handle questions from the judges, and to apply their own personal experience to explain economic theory,” said Professor Tournas. “The BMCC student team members took part in intense academic discussions with faculty through the Finance and Banking Club meetings, even during the summer semester. We welcome any interested BMCC students to these meetings, who want to build their understanding of complicated financial concepts.”

Charles Reid (Economics, ’19), a member of the winning College Fed Challenge team in 2018, has started working as a full-time Associate Bank Examiner with the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, and credits his College Fed Challenge experience at BMCC for helping to prepare him for a career in finance.

“Looking back, I am very thankful that I was able to work with Professor Tournas and Professor Schroeder and take part in the Finance and Banking Club and the College Fed Challenge competition. We were also invited to meet Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in Washington D.C.,” said Reid. “I am also grateful for the outstanding job opportunity the Fed Challenge experience led me to.”

According to Professor Tournas, the Fed Challenge student team will build on their experience by participating in FDIC Academic Challenge competition in 2022.

Online meetings that focus on Economics and The Fed Challenge take place virtually on Wednesdays during club hours between 2 and 4 p.m. The meetings focus on the workings of the financial and banking system, and analyzing economic developments and monetary policy. In that context students participate in College Fed Challenge and other academic competitions.

BMCC students interested in joining the Fed Challenge discussions are encouraged to contact Professor Yanni Tournas at itournas@bmcc.cuny.edu or ytournas@gmail.com and include FED CHALLENGE in the subject line.