For release: March 8, 2002
Contact: Faith Weekly, (502) 568-9216; Charles B. Henderson, (314) 444-8311

Hart County High School Team Wins Louisville Area "Fed Challenge"

LOUISVILLE -- A team of five students from Hart County High School in Munfordville, Ky., won first place in the Louisville area "Fed Challenge," an economics competition sponsored by the Louisville Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. A team from Seneca High School captured second place and a team from Henry County High School in New Castle, Ky., came in third.

The five Hart County High students are Stanley Bryant, Rachael Shively, Stephanie Cox, Jassamyn Logsdon and Sara Loecken. Their teacher is Deborah Murray. Their coaches are David Shadburne, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Kentucky Banking Center in Horse Cave, Ky., and Vanessa Puckett, senior vice president of Kentucky Banking Center.

Each team made a 15-minute presentation, based on their research of economic conditions and reflecting their recommended course of action for monetary policy. These presentations were made before a panel of judges in a mock Federal Open Market Committee format. The teams then answered questions based on their presentations and research.

The judges were William Emmons, an economist with the Supervision and Regulation Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Jack Morgan, professor of economic education and social studies education at the University of Louisville; and Paul Coomes, professor of economics and national city research fellow in the College of Business and Public Administration at the University of Louisville.

On April 3, the team will compete in the District competition in Memphis against the winning teams from Little Rock, Memphis and St. Louis. The winner of that round will then represent the Eighth District at the Federal Reserve System's national competition May 4-6 in Washington, D.C.

With branches in Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis serves the Eighth Federal Reserve District, which includes all of Arkansas, eastern Missouri, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. In addition to serving as a bank for depository institutions and the U.S. government, each Reserve Bank monitors economic conditions in its District, participates in formulating monetary policy, and supervises state-chartered member banks and bank holding companies to foster safety and soundness of its District's banking and financial institutions and to protect the credit rights of consumers.

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