06 Feb Rockwell economists take on the world’s best.

Rockwell economists take on the world’s best.

Saturday February 5th will be a big day for six Fifth Year Rockwell College students. Two teams of 3 students have qualified for the Winter International Challenge (WIC) allowing them to take on 1,000 other students from 51 other nationals throughout the world. This competition is run by and pitched towards former participants on the International Economics Olympiad (IEO) whose head office is in the Higher School of Economics Moscow.

The competition has three parts. Firstly, there is the Business Case Study where each team will be presented with a problem from the world to solve. Nine days later they will present their solutions to their peers. This competition is peer graded so our teams will gain valuable experience in analysis and submitting feedback to their fellow competitors. Don Wallace (Cashel) of Team 1 remarked ‘I am particularly looking forward to this as I am really interested problem solving, teamwork and presenting creative solutions. I have really enjoyed this part of the preparation. That said, I am also looking forward to pitting our team against university students worldwide’. The students are very grateful to Jill Pierse (2010) and Con Bartels (2016) who gave so generously of their time in business case study preparation.

Part two is an economics test while part three is Financial Literacy Game where the students will manage a portfolio of stocks and shares. Reflecting on what lies ahead their teacher Pat Egan spoke with pride on the challenging work and teamwork shown by the students to date. With the economy opening and mid-term approaching he spoke of his pride in these students choosing to work when there is so much to catch up on.

Team 1 – Finnian Grace (Toomevara), Rory Flannigan (Johnswell, Kilkenny) and Conor Hennessy (Cahir)

Team 2 – Roisin Dunphy (Clonmel), Amy Egan (Dromcondra), and Don Wallace (Cashel)