(Chelsea Update would like to thank Matt Pedlow for the information and photos in this story.)
The Chelsea High School team of Zach Lee, Nora Dobos, Nic Arons, and Derek Schaedig recently took first place in the state finals of the Economics Challenge.
In addition, the team of Morgan Matusik, Mary Hermann, Savanah Steele, and Jesse Martinez-Kratz also finished in the top 10.
The Economics Challenge is a national competition in which students take an online qualifying test about microeconomics, macroeconomics, and international trade.
The top 20 teams from around the state then get invited to Walsh College in Novi in which they took a series of tests dealing with economics. The top two teams in the state are then asked to go head to head in a quiz bowl format.
Chelsea went into the finals against Troy High School and took an early lead, but saw their lead diminish until they were down two points with three questions to go. If Troy got one more question correct they would be the champions. However, Chelsea got two in a row and tied them, and it came down to the final question. The question was “what is the name of the coefficient used to measure income inequality” and Zach Lee buzzed in first and answered correctly “Gini Coefficient”.
This is the first championship for Chelsea as they’ve finished in 2nd place on five different occasions. The team now moves on to the regional competition in late April.
The winner of the regional competition moves on to the national championships in NYC in May.
