Students from California and Hawaii Win Western Regionals in NCEE/Goldman Sachs Foundation 'Economics Challenge'

Winners Now Head to New York for National Championship Series

San Francisco --In a hard-fought regional competition of state champions from six western states, student teams from California and Hawaii emerged as the "West Regional" division winners in the 2003 NCEE/Goldman Sachs Foundation Economics Challenge. This college-bowl like competition, which blends the excitement of an athletic event with the pursuit of academic excellence, tested students' knowledge of complex economic concepts and theories.

The winning team in the Adam Smith Division (for advanced placement students) is from Rio Americano High School in Sacramento. Team members are Henry Adams, Matt Grandy, Dan Oliver, and Jeff Suer and their teacher advisor is Dan Westover. The winners of the David Ricardo Division (for single semester students) are from Iolani School in Honolulu. They are Yuan Gao, Christopher Iraha, Jerrene Takeuchi, and Christine Tasato and their teacher advisor is Richie Kibota.

West Regional coordinator John S. Morton praised the well-prepared and enthusiastic students. "The competition in both the Adam Smith and David Ricardo Divisions was very close and came down to the final quiz-bowl question for the Adam Smith teams. I congratulate the students and their teachers for the great job they did in preparing for the Economics Challenge."

The regional winners received U.S. Savings Bonds and individual medals and now proceed to one of two "final four" competitions. In this final round, the East, Midwest, Heartland and West regional winners in each of the two divisions will meet face-to-face in New York for the national titles in their respective divisions. Two "final four" rounds will take place on May 18th with the "national championship" rounds set for May 19th at the New York High School of Economics and Finance in Lower Manhattan.

At stake are thousands of dollars in cash prizes, which are in addition to all-expense paid trips to New York for the regional winners and their teacher advisors. The national champs for each division and their teacher advisors will each receive a $3,000 savings bond. A $1,500 bond will be awarded to each member of the first runners-up teams and their advisors. Team trophies and individual medals will be given to all participants in the championship series.

NCEE and the Goldman Sachs Foundation created the National Economics Challenge in 2000 to promote student interest in economics, reinforce classroom instruction, advance academics and school spirit and reward scholarship. The Economics Challenge is one of several key initiatives in NCEE's "Campaign for Economic Literacy" which, among other things, seeks to focus public attention on the importance of economic literacy and the need for a high-quality, standards-based economic curriculum in every state.

The Goldman Sachs Foundation is a global philanthropic organization funded by The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. The Foundation's mission is to promote excellence and innovation in education and to improve the academic performance and lifelong productivity of young people worldwide. It achieves this mission through a combination of strategic partnerships, grants, loans, private sector investments, and the deployment of professional talent from Goldman Sachs. Funded in 1999, the Foundation has awarded grants in excess of $45 million since its inception, providing opportunities for young people in more than 20 countries.

NCEE is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving economic literacy. Through its nationwide network of state Councils and 250 affiliated university Centers for Economic Education, NCEE administers programs that annually reach over 120,000 teachers and more than seven million students in 70,000 schools. For more than 50 years, NCEE has been helping thousands of young people in grades K-12 learn lifelong skills to enable them to become knowledgeable consumers, prudent savers and investors, responsible citizens and productive members of the workforce.