When registering for classes in spring semester, I was excited to register for practicum again. After taking Practicum for the first time spring semester, I had a very interesting time researching economic policies and also had a great time learning a lot more about economics. After focusing more on the research aspect in Spring, I was eager to see how it would have all come together for the video submission in the Fall.

Throughout the semester I was able to help contribute to the final presentation, and I continued expanding my knowledge about inflation and how the current state of inflation impacted our final policy recommendation of lowering the current rate to 4.5%-4.75%. Although, inflation was not the main focus this semester as it has been looking to reach the Fed’s goal of 2%. Labor market conditions were the main focus this semester and I was able to learn a lot more about labor market conditions that ultimately impacted our final policy recommendation.

The first semester of Practicum and being a part of the Fed Challenge was something that was very daunting but also a very interesting experience. I was able to join with very little knowledge of economics and how things like the Fed worked but I was able to use the Spring semester to learn as much as I could about monetary policy, GDP, the labor market, inflation and other topics.

During the process of making the video for the Fed Challenge, working on the presentation, and gathering information to be presented was a great experience as a team that I think everyone would agree with. Everyone could speak knowing that their thoughts and ideas would be heard and taken into consideration, but also allowed a space to talk about other topics of economics and inspired a lot of insightful conversations.

I think that the process of everyone working together to help each other achieve the goal of having the presentation include important information that we all researched and helped put together was an experience unlike any other. It was a much different experience than just having a group project in a regular class because the end goal could be different for everyone. For the Fed Challenge the stakes were much higher and I believe that for everyone it was much more than just a presentation, but it was an opportunity to showcase our research and final work that we have taken two semesters to work on.

Everyone in the Fed Challenge worked very well together and although our video did not win, the work that everyone did to come up with the final presentation was fantastic work and overall, it was a great experience. Bringing together everyone’s knowledge and information into the end presentation was still amazing work and despite not moving onto the next question and answer round, the presentation was a great experience and was the result of hard work and dedication.