By: Madeline Trotta ‘25 – published in Fall 2024 Issue 2
For the first five weeks of the semester, a group of Siena economics students were hard at work developing a presentation for the 2024 College Federal Reserve Challenge.
The College Fed Challenge is a national undergraduate competition held each year by the Federal Reserve. Student teams are tasked with assessing recent economic conditions in order to create a monetary policy decision that suggests lowering, raising, or maintaining the current federal funds rate. Teams then virtually present their analysis and decision in early October through a 15-minute video submission.
Dr. Aaron Pacitti has been teaching Siena’s Fed Challenge course since 2017. In his words, “It’s a unique class because students have an opportunity to not just learn about economic policy, but actively put themselves in the shoes of the Federal Open Market Committee. Presentations are watched and judged by Federal Reserve economists, so students have to level up and pitch their talk not to a professor, but to some of the world’s best economists.” The format of the course also sets it apart, as most classes are dedicated to hands-on experiences determined by students instead of to lectures. “The class felt much more adjacent to working on a real research team rather than a 3-credit course,” said economics major Molly McBain ’26. “The opportunity to work with real, live data was exciting; and it was a great opportunity to apply traditional economic theory and lectures to the current state of the macroeconomy.”
Hands-on activities enable the Fed Challenge course to achieve its main objective of building practical skills. Dr. Pacitti said, “The competition between schools is fun, but the goal isn’t to advance or to win–though that would be nice–but to give students a chance to really get in the weeds of economic policy-making and to sharpen their communication and analytical skills.” Angela Everett ’25, an economics and finance major, spoke to the unique process of writing and acting out a presentation script. “Learning how to write something that’s going to be read aloud is very different from writing a paper and a skill that was really strengthened in this class,” she explained.
These writing and communication skills went hand-in-hand with teamwork and leadership skills. In Molly’s words, “You were consistently collaborating, checking, and changing your work throughout the entire process with every other student in the class. It became evident that every student’s role in the class was pivotal to the success of the team, and we relied on each other for every sentence written and every graph created.” Collaboration with the student team grew to incorporate input from other members of the Siena community as well. “We interacted with several members of the economics department as well as alumni to implement their feedback into our final project,” Molly added. “The exposure to so many people, whether it be my fellow students, alumni, or faculty, widened my own knowledge about economics and public policy.”
Although the Fed Challenge is a uniquely beneficial experience every year, economic and political conditions made this year’s project especially engaging. “Most of the time, the course was fun, but there weren’t many creative ways to build a presentation because the economy was fairly stable,” Dr. Pacitti explained about past years. After the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the Fed had to focus much more on combating inflation as it reached 40-year highs. Now, inflation is leveling out but continuing geopolitical conflict in the Middle East and questions surrounding the upcoming election create additional variables to consider. These current events were given special focus in the team’s final video, which was submitted to the Fed on October 3.
Although the majority of the work is now done, Fed Challenge students will continue to participate in outreach activities to share what they’ve learned. For the second year in a row, groups of students will be joining Dr. Pacitti as guests on the daily current events Roundtable of Albany’s National Public Radio, which broadcasts to roughly one million people. “It is rare to be able to give your opinion and have so many people actually listen!” Dr. Pacitti said. He also noted, “This will be a particularly interesting year as students will be on four different Fridays in the immediate runup to and aftermath of the presidential election,” allowing for dialogue about how political circumstances have impacted the economy and the Federal Reserve. Anyone interested will be able to hear Fed Challenge students discuss their insight into these current economic conditions on alternating Fridays starting October 25 at 9 a.m. via WAMC 90.3FM.
To further spread the word about the course, a group of students from the Fed Challenge will be giving their presentation in the spring semester at Siena’s nineteenth annual Ted R. Winnowski ’63 Student Conference in Business. Dr. Pacitti will also be working with Siena’s Marketing, Communications, and Public Affairs Office to publicize the course to students, faculty, alumni, and donors. “Not every college has a Fed Challenge team, so this is a really unique opportunity for Siena,” he said about the value of the course to the Siena community. Molly McBain echoed this statement, saying, “I learned so much over such a short period of time and am so grateful for the opportunity to diversify my learning experience at Siena.” Dr. Pacitti’s biggest takeaway from teaching the Fed Challenge has been a sense of pride. “I am consistently impressed by the quality of work Siena students do!” he said. “They are remarkably creative and diligent in putting together a 15-minute presentation that has to cover so much ground. Not only does the world need more Saints, but we also need more Saint economists!”