May 15, 2008

• Vestavia Hills High School team

• National competition in New York

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Vestavia Hills High School’s Adam Smith team, state champions at the Alabama Economics Challenge hosted at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has advanced to the national competition in New York. The National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) will present the eighth annual NCEE/Goldman Sachs Foundation National Economics Challenge May 17-19, when Vestavia will be one of four finalists competing in the Adam Smith or AP division.

UAB’s Center for Economic Education (CEE) on April 1 hosted the 2008 Alabama Economics challenge, presented by the Alabama Council on Economic Education. The Alabama contest is sponsored by the Alabama Department of Education with support from Merrill Lynch. Alabama was one of 36 states holding state competitions. More than 20 teams answered questions on current events and concepts such as unemployment policies, government deficits and foreign exchange markets, just to name a few. There are two divisions: the Adam Smith division for advanced placement and international baccalaureate students, and the David Ricardo division for students in regular or applied economics courses or blocks.

Sarah Culver, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Department of Finance, Economics and Quantitative Methods and director of the UAB CEE, started the challenge in 2004 as a way of promoting economic education for K-12 students.