Now that the course for Practicum is finished and the final presentation has been made, there are a lot of things that I have learned along the way while completing this two-semester course. The first thing I learned is that projects that you truly want to be as great as possible are never really finished but instead are constantly evolving, becoming better than the previous versions. If we had more time with the project, I'm sure it would have continued to evolve to become an even better version of our final presentation as our team brainstormed new ideas and reviewed our current material to see if it could be better than what we already have. 

Another key skill I learned was evaluating what is truly important in a presentation. With the scope of the Fed Challenge, the amount of data you can include is really endless, but you are constrained by only having 15 minutes to state your case. Doing this project was a real test of critical thinking ability as our team was constantly weighing the pros and cons of including certain pieces of data over others to help our presentation make the strongest argument possible. Our team spent a lot of time debating internally about the importance of certain pieces of economic data to determine what was truly important to allow our presentation to efficiently address all components of the rubric to make the most appealing presentation possible. 

The last thing I learned was how to help group members with their portion of the presentation. Sometimes, when working on something for a long time, it's very easy to get tunnel vision and lose focus on what is the most efficient way to convey data. I found it to be very important for members in the group to weigh in on each other's sections to help avoid tunnel vision and make sure the project conveys the message that we want to convey. 

Among the eight core competencies identified by the UConn Career Center, three areas stand out due to the constant demands and collaborative nature of the Fed Challenge project: Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, Teamwork/Collaboration, and Professionalism/Work Ethic. 

The continuous evaluation and refinement of our presentation was a direct exercise in Critical Thinking/Problem Solving. This was far more than simply compiling data; it involved an ongoing process of analysis and synthesis. For instance, when constructing our economic forecast, our team faced the problem of conflicting data signals regarding the labor market. Solving this required us to critically evaluate the source, recency, and methodology of various data points, deciding whether to weigh the establishment survey more heavily than the household survey, for example. This forced a deeper, more rigorous layer of analysis than any standard assignment and sharpened my ability to form a substantiated judgment under time constraints, which is an invaluable professional skill. 

Furthermore, the necessity of deciding which data to include or exclude to fit the strict 15-minute time limit truly tested my Teamwork/Collaboration skills. Effective collaboration went beyond simply dividing up sections; it required an ability to challenge teammates’ assumptions and arguments, and, crucially, to receive and implement criticisms. Through active listening and structured discussion, we successfully synthesized these perspectives into a cohesive narrative, proving that collaboration is about merging intellectual contributions into a superior final product, not just co-existing. 

Finally, navigating the entire two-semester scope of the project required a high degree of Professionalism/Work Ethic. The commitment to ensuring that "projects that you truly want to be as great as possible are never really finished" meant maintaining a consistent standard of excellence, even when facing setbacks or during the final crunch period. This translated into being accountable for my assigned research components, meeting intermediate deadlines without fail, and demonstrating initiative by proactively seeking out additional data or frameworks that could strengthen our overall argument. This sustained, high-level commitment to quality is the foundation of a strong professional work ethic and is perhaps the most fundamental competency I have carried away from this course. 

If I were to take the course again from the very beginning, there are a lot of things I would have changed. Firstly, I think the most important thing I would have changed would have been getting some sort of first draft for our presentation to work on sooner. I feel like, while it was important in the beginning for everyone in the group to go over the basic economic indicators the Fed uses to make its decision, as soon as we were finished reviewing those, we should have had a presentation within a few weeks from that point. I feel like our team started to make good progress when we had a draft presentation to start working on, as that gave us a starting point where we could show our ideas to one another and start to build off something. Another thing I think we could have done differently was to set our due date for having the final video completed a week before submission. It was pretty hectic and stressful to try to get the video recorded and complete the day before it was due, and also, the limited time we gave ourselves didn’t leave any time for addressing last-minute issues like our faces covering a portion of the presentation.