A team of five Upper School economics students will travel to New York City on an all-expenses paid trip to compete in the televised national finals of the Council for Economic Education’s (CEE) annual National Economics Challenge for high school students from May 16 to May 18.

The team, which competes under the name of “Hurrikeynes,” a play on the name of modern economist John Keynes, the father of Keynesian economic theory, consists of seniors Aaron Huang, Steven Wang, Ashwath Thirumalai, Leo Yu and Rohith Kuditipudi. Aaron, Steven, Ashwath and Leo will be the four competing. They are advised by Upper School Economics teachers Samuel Lepler and Damon Halback and will compete in the Adam Smith, or advanced placement, division of the tournament.

“We were able to get [three] teams into the Norcal finals and then come away with a win,” Lepler said. “Right now we’re in the top four in America.”

This year, the CEE has granted the top four teams in the both the Adam Smith and David Ricardo (non advanced placement) divisions all-expenses paid trips to New York City; after the team’s repeated successes at the state and semifinal levels, Hurrikeynes has emerged ranked number two in the nation and has been offered this opportunity for the national finals.

Ashwath, who joined the team before the state-level round, comments on the team’s efforts thus far. He credits their successes to the assistance of Lepler and Halback, who have helped them learn material outside out of the AP curriculum.

“It feels great to have advanced this far in the Economics Challenge; it took a lot of work on behalf of the whole team to make it this far,” Ashwath said. “Mr. Lepler and Mr. Halback really helped us study and hosted practice sessions, so we’re very grateful to them for that. They were the ones who taught us AP Econ; they were great teachers and gave us a solid foundation to pursue further studies in economics.”

Depending on level, the actual competition consists of an online test, individual written tests, team case-studies and quiz bowl rounds, with content ranging from macroeconomics and microeconomics to international economics and current events.

This year, after scoring in the top five on an online test, three Upper School teams were among the five teams invited to compete at the state-level at the San Francisco Federal Reserve on April 7. Only one team is chosen per state; Hurrikeynes was named the state-winner, selected to advance to the semifinals and will now compete in the national finals.

In past years, Upper School teams have been recognized at the national final level. In 2011, the team of Ramya Rangan, Max Isenberg, Michelle Deng and Nikhil Narayan placed third at national finals; and in 2012, the team of Ramya, Max, Albert Wu and Warren Zhang placed second at national finals.

All finalists of the National Economics Challenge will be awarded prize money, and the amount won will depend on final ranking. The finals can be watched on Channel One or through a live stream on the CEE’s website.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on May 13, 2015.