Teams triumph in economics challenge

A team of three students from Kerikeri High School triumphed in the ANZ-Massey Economics Challenge held in Whangarei on Friday.

They took top honours in the competition at Toll Stadium, which challenged students to tackle the New Zealand savings crisis. The school’s second team were runners up.

It was the first time Massey University and the ANZ had hosted the competition in Northland.

It was held simultaneously in Whangarei and on the University’s Albany and Manawatu campuses, where it has been an annual highlight on the College of Business calendar for the past three years.

Macleans College won the Albany event with Albany Senior High School runners up and Palmerston North Boys’ High teams were winners and runners up in Manawatu.

Each team tested their skills in a microeconomics quiz based on the NCEA curriculum, before making a “rocket” pitch on the topic Are Kiwis bad savers? Does it matter?

Eight teams took part in the Northland event. They were from from Kaitaia College, Kamo High School, Pompallier Catholic College and Whangarei Boys' High School and two each from Kerikeri High School and Bream Bay College.

They presented their innovative ideas to a panel of expert judges including Whangarei District Council economic development manager Peter Gleeson, ANZ managing director retail Kerri Thompson, Otago University senior lecturer Chris Hajzler and Massey University senior lecturers Dr Otto Reich and Dr Brendan Moyle.

The winning Kerikeri team members were Max Olson, Michael Prendergast and Jonny Martin.

Kerikeri High School teacher Chris Bell says his students were excited about the opportunity to compete in the event, pitting their skills against their Northland peers and presenting to an expert panel of judges from the banking and academic sectors.

“These students are passionate about studying economics and always bring high energy levels and engagement to the teaching/learning interaction in the classroom,” he says. “Their positive attitude has assisted them greatly in developing their expertise. Both Kerikeri High School teams worked very hard to develop their presentations which reflected their individual views about the overall topic.”

Dr Brendan Moyle, who is based at the Albany campus and was Master of Ceremonies at the competition at Whangarei, says it was great to see the energy in the room.

“The students responded well to the challenge and stayed competitive right through the day. And it’s a good way for them to interact with experts and see how economics informs policy debates. I’d be happy to have any of them attending my economics classes next year.”

Each student in the winning team received $2000 towards full-time study in Massey University’s College of Business in 2012. Runners-up were awarded a scholarship of $1000.

In Albany the winning Macleans College team members were Lingliang Zhang, Denny Zhang and Jason Leung. In Manawatu the winners were Sam Irvine, Sam Li and Ed Krishna.