March Madness is here! 

Several De La Salle Collegiate teams have been facing competition the past few weeks, including our DECA team, our Robotics team (the Autopilots), and our Mock Trial Team which is headed to state competition this weekend. 

Add one more: the group of three seniors and two juniors who have been meeting regularly at 7 a.m. with Business teacher Mr. Dennis Koch, ‘94, to prepare for the Federal Reserve Challenge on Wednesday, March 19. 

The competition, a nationwide educational effort by the Federal Reserve, requires teams to prepare a 15-minute presentation on an economic issue, followed by a 10-minute questioning period. 

The DLS team is led by senior Vianni Giorgis. Evan Cole and Anthony Cooper are the other seniors, and juniors Glenn Acre and Nikolai Zacharko round out the team. 

The challenge requires teams to include the following elements in their presentation, including 

• An analysis of current economic conditions
• A forecast of near-term economic and financial conditions 
• A discussion of significant risks to the economy
• A monetary policy recommendation

The group is then questioned about their material and also asked hypothetical questions. 

The scoring rubric includes evaluating the team’s knowledge, responses to judges’ questions, the presentation, research and analysis, and teamwork and cooperation. 

Vianni says the group has utilized what they have learned in Business classes. Vianni himself has had classes with Koch as well as faculty member Mr. Mike Shortt, ‘04, who teaches Personal Finance and Economics. 

“We’ve really worked hard the last two months, meeting at 7 a.m., and sometimes after school for 30 minutes to an hour,” Vianni said. “We’ve kept up on what is going on in the economy - the GDP, inflation, interest rates. We’re ready.” 

Vianni said they have also utilized online sources (two examples are listed below) and reviewed a recent speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. 

Sources used for Fed challenge: 
https://www.marketwatch.com/economy-politics/calendar 
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi