Bellevue East, Lincoln Northeast win Nebraska Economics Challenge

Teams from Bellevue East and Lincoln Northeast high schools were the division winners in the Nebraska Economics Challenge March 27 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In quiz bowl-type finals, the Bellevue East team of Courtney Campbell, Patrick Curington, Richard Kepford and Ryan Splichal (PK Simmons, teacher) won the Adam Smith Division and the Lincoln Northeast team of Alicia Bucci, Bekah King, Gina Tran and Tanner Pfeiffer (Carol Mathias, teacher) won the David Ricardo Division.

The runner-up in the Adam Smith Division was the Omaha Central team of Emily Epperson, Amanda Smith, Alex Tran and Qianli Wang (Vicki Deniston-Reed, teacher). The runner-up in the David Ricardo Division was the Twin River team of Trevor Stec, Mike Mozer and Brandon Drozd (Ryan Sidwell, teacher).

The Nebraska Economics Challenge involved four rounds of competition in each division. The first three rounds consisted of an assessment of their knowledge of topics related to macroeconomics (the study of our economy as a whole), microeconomics (the study of the economic behavior of individuals, businesses and industries) and international economics. Students individually answered multiple-choice questions and a team score was comprised of the top three individual scores.

Following the first three rounds, the highest two team scores in each division advanced to the final round where they orally answered questions using a quiz-bowl format.

The Lincoln Northeast team advances to an online national competition April 26 with $1,650 in prize money at stake. Bellevue East advances to the national semifinal competition April 26 and the top six teams nationally will go on to compete in the National Economics Challenge May 22-24 in New York City.

Other participating teams in the Nebraska Economics Challenge were from Humboldt-Table Rock-Steinauer, Omaha Northwest, Platteview, St. Edward and Waverly.

The event is sponsored by the Nebraska Council on Economic Education, a nonprofit organization based the UNL College of Business Administration dedicated to improving the economic literacy of Nebraska's students. This goal is achieved primarily through economic education programs, courses and workshops for educators across the state. The Nebraska Economics Challenge will again be offered to all Nebraska economics teachers and their students next year.

Following is a list of other participating students by high school (including those on additional teams from Bellevue East, Lincoln Northeast, Omaha Central and Twin River):

Bellevue East: Brianna Boehne, Angela Bowman, Francesca Cutrera, Sam Ervin, Andrew Maes, Henry Timmins, Victoria Trojanowski, Matthew Wilch (PK Simmons, teacher).

Humboldt-Table Rock-Steinauer: Reba Burgett, Cody Dreier, Jacob McNealy, Logan Niedzielski, Curtis Rexroth, Robyn Robles, Thomas Schuler, Dylan Smith (Joan Dreier, teacher).

Lincoln Northeast: Owen Barger, Kurt Berchtold, Sharon Jeutang, Kyle Kettler, Stefan Merchant, Emery Pigg, Travis Ray, Nicholas Robinson (Carol Mathias, teacher).

Omaha Central: Subodh Adikhari, Ariel Brodkey, Elizabeth deLaittre, Tatyana Kasperovich, Adam Lacroix, Emily Nolan, September Symens, Isaac Thomas (Vicki Deniston-Reed, teacher).

Omaha Northwest: Noah Carpenter, Shelby Hildreth, Eric Holley, Amanda Smith (Kim Kromberg, teacher).

Platteview: Emma Friesen Adam Heimes, Emma Hopkins, Caitlynn Lassek, Haylie Scholting, Dan Uttecht, Nathan Wulf (Patti Layher, teacher).

Waverly: Emily Brumond, Maggie Brumond, Alex Eliker, Eric Herr, Brian Richard, Brad Scheuler, Karl Woerth (Bret Harpster, teacher).

Twin River: Paola Arizmendi, Greg Connelly, Kirstin Cromwell, Nathan Gay, Rebecca Johnson, Tanya Snyder, Kirsten Wilcox (Ryan Sidwell, teacher).

St. Edward: Brenna Carlstrom, Kevin Hoshor, Lindsey Roan, Morgan Sheffler (Jereme Jones, teacher).

WRITER: Jennifer Davidson