For release: April 13, 2006

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Marquette High Captures First Place in District Fed Challenge

ST. LOUIS, Mo.— A team of students from Marquette High School in Chesterfield, Mo., earned first place in the Federal Reserve's Eighth District "Fed Challenge," an economics competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The Marquette students will go on to represent the Federal Reserve's Eighth District at the Federal Reserve System’s national competition on April 29 - May 1 in Washington, D.C.

The Marquette students are Paul Boswell, Jereme Kramer, Becky Strubberg, Melanie Subramanian and Charles Wu. Students Xander Hieken and Jennifer Storozum served as alternates. Eva Johnston is the Marquette team's teacher, and Paul Christopher, a global macro strategist with Eclipse Capital Management, served as coach.

The Marquette team bested teams fielded by the St. Louis Fed's branches in Memphis and Little Rock.

Each team made a 15-minute presentation based on research of economic conditions and then recommended a 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 for the competition were William Poole, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; Robert Sorensen, professor of economics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis; and Bert Greenwalt, professor at Arkansas State University and a former member of the St. Louis Fed's board of directors.

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. The St. Louis Fed is one of 12 regional Reserve banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., comprise the Federal Reserve System. As the nation’s central bank, the Federal Reserve System formulates U.S. monetary policy, regulates state-chartered member banks and bank holding companies, and provides payment services to financial institutions and the U.S. government.

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