On March 11th, Ernesto had the opportunity to be a judge for the Washington Regional Euro Challenge Competition. This competition serves as an opportunity for 9th and 10th grade students who are passionate about world history, European studies, economics, trade, and global business present to a panel of judges about the current state of the economy in the Euro Area. Winners from each regional
Ernesto, along with Ron Masnik, a World Affairs Council Board of Directors member, and Guntis Šmidchens, Head of the Baltic Studies Program, had the difficult challenge of declaring a winning team who would get an all-expenses paid trip to New York City to compete in the Euro Challenge National Semifinals.
The Inglemoor Team practices with their advisor before presenting
Inglemoor High School represented Cyprus and made an impressive presentation with very well elaborated team work, including role play. Remarkably, when asked about an issue they had not referred to in the presentation (the effect of economic policy on possible reunification) they showed that they had indeed prepared for the question and delivered an answer without hesitation.
Newport High School represented Italy and made a very convincing case of the importance of innovation, including the positive side effects of it. They also made a very useful presentation of Europe’s economic outlook that provided a very good context to the presentation.
In the end, all three judges agreed that it was Inglemoor’s elaborate teamwork that gave them the overall victory, winning by just one point. Ernesto remarked that “All of the students made an impressive investment in digging out the information and selecting the most pertinent pieces, something to be underlined given the sheer amount of information available on the Internet, and the difficulty to select what is important and what is not.”
Ernesto enjoyed seeing both teams hard work and teamwork throughout the competitions. “I wish a lot of success to the winning team, and encourage the losing team to try again next year; they were excellent on substance and only their rival’s brilliant teamwork presentation was able to beat them”.