A few of the students who attended the Economics Challenge pose with their coach, Mr. Hartsoe PHOTO/TMr. Hartsoe

Twenty Choate Economics students traveled to Hartford’s Constitutional Plaza on April 2nd, 2007, to contend in the 2007 Economics Challenge. The Choate team battled through all four rounds to triumph in the competition for the 6th time in 7 years.

The annual Economics Challenge is a national competition coordinated by the National Council on Economic Education and sponsored by the Goldman Sachs Foundation. For the first time, this year’s Connecticut state competition was held at the University of Connecticut’s Graduate Business Learning Center in Hartford.

The Economics Challenge is designed to test students understanding of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and international economics. Students participate in teams of four people. In the first two rounds of the competition, students demonstrate their knowledge on microeconomics and macroeconomics by individually answering multiple choice test questions. In the third round, the teams work together to answer a test on international economics and “a potpourri of subjects related to economics including history, economics, and personal finance,” said Choate’s Econ Challenge coach and Economics teacher Mr. Ted Hartsoe. The two highest scoring teams from the first three rounds battle each other in the final round of the competition—a decisive Quiz Bowl.

Mr. Hartsoe expressed his excitement regarding the recent rise in student participation, “I was impressed by the number of kids who were interested in participating this year.” He later noted that this year’s contestants were mostly underclassmen, which may have resulted from a drop in senior participation.

Under the mentorship of Mr. Hartsoe, the five Choate teams prepared for the competition in weekly review sessions. A member of the winning team, Steven Chen ’08, explained, “Mr. Hartsoe advised us to study our notes, and we met frequently in review sessions as the competition approached.”

Students from schools across the state participated in this year’s Economics Challenge. After the three preliminary rounds finished, two strong Choate teams were tied for the highest score and qualified for the championship round. In the end, the team of Daniel Hartsoe ’09, Omid NasserBigdeli ’08, Steven Chen ’08, and Amy Xie ’08 defeated their schoolmates and opponents Stephanie Choi ’09, Aparna Krisnan ’08, Jennifer Kim ’08, and Ashwini Kadaba ’08.

The winning Choate team will proceed to the Regional Economics Challenge in Philadelphia. Chen elaborated, “I’m very excited to go to Philadelphia, but we will have to study hard to beat the strong teams from other states.” Choate’s winning team will face first place teams from nine other states in the regional competition.

The four Choate state winners will attend the regional competition on April 22nd and 23rd with Coach Hartsoe. The Goldman Sachs Foundation will cover all traveling expenses. When asked about coaching these Economics students, Mr. Hartsoe stated, “It has been fun, and the kids have been really enthusiastic. That makes it more enjoyable for me to work with them.”