Ridgefield High School Students Win Euro Challenge!

The Euro Challenge is an exciting educational opportunity for high school students to learn about the European Union (EU) and the euro. Student teams of five students are asked to make presentations answering specific questions about the European economy and the single currency, the euro. They are also asked to pick one member country of the "euro area" (these are 17 EU member countries that have adopted the euro so far), to examine an economic problem at the country level, and to identify policiesto correct the situation..

In 2012, its seventh year, the Euro Challenge continued to expand nationally, with up to 100 teams from various regions in the United States expected to compete for monetary awards generously provided by The Moody's Foundation.

The Euro Challenge is a program launched and supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States in Washington, D.C., with support from the Program Advisor of  the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Other partner organizations include The Moody's Foundation, Credit Suisse, the University of North Carolina, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Indiana University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Florida International University, the University of Michigan, the University of Pittsburgh, City University of New York, and the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston, Chicago, Atlanta (Miami branch) and Cleveland (Pittsburgh branch).

This year, Ridgefield High School participated in this very exciting program with Mrs. Fischer as the advisor. The students were Greg Graham, Sarah Baer, Monika Wiktorzak, James Barile and Devin Gund. Dani Blum compiled the power point slides. After many months of research, the students decided to present as their topic Italy and Slow. The format of the speech was to discuss the economic conditions of the Eurozone, the economic condition of their topic and country, and then to give some suggestions to resolve the economic woes.

The real work began creating a 15 minute speech and power point slides which complemented the presentation.  After their presentation, the students were questioned indepth about their knowledge of Italy, their economic conditions and their solutions.  To prepare for their presentation, the students visited the Italian mission in New York City and contacted Mrs. Tropeano the Italian language teacher at Ridgefield High School.  She has a cousin, Mr.Cuomo  in Italy and the team was in constant communication with him. In the first round of the competition,Ridgefield High School competed at Credit Suisse and earned a place in the semifinals.

On April 30, the Ridgefield team moved into semifinals and competed against the top 25 teams in the nation. This was held  at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. There were teams from Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, North Carolina along with the metropolitan area schools.  One of the students, Devin Gund was interviewed at CNBC Power Lunch concerning the competition of EuroChallenge. After the morning presentation, the team was selected to compete in the afternoon finals. Ridgefield High School won the National EuroChallenge winning a sizeable individual financial prize for their accomplishments.

Students were invited to a beautiful reception at Moody’s Analytics  in the Wall Street  area. At the closing reception, Ambassador Joao Vale de Almeida of Portugal addressed all the students of the competition about the importance of education and the understanding of globalization. He was very proud of all the students’ accomplishments and praised them on their presentations and hard work. He felt assured that the future of the Euro and the relationship between the United States and Eurozone was truly going to be in good hands with these students.

Ridgefield High School students will now have a unique experience because they will be going to Washington D.C. in June to meet with the Italian delegation of the Eurozone. They trip to Washington D.C. will be paid by Moody’s Analytics.