Thanks to support from our sponsors, Blacks on Wall Street, and technical support provided by Brightcove, a Boston-based video platform company, we were able to hold our 8th Annual Global Economic Symposium (GES) virtually on Friday, March 25th. This year’s program included new schools from Chicago, the District of Columbia, and New Orleans with returning schools from Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas.
Teams of students in high and middle school, with the assistance of mentors from Northeastern University and Bentley University, identified a global issue which they would attempt to solve using economics. Students compiled comprehensive research on how their issue impacted global economies, populations, and ecosystems, then used critical thinking and economic principles to create their solutions.
For their presentations, students produced short videos to highlight their analysis of the problem and their proposed solutions. On the day of the event, their 5-minute pre-recorded videos were shown to panels of judges consisting of distinguished experts in academia, industry, banking, and education. The students on each team then had opportunities to respond in real-time to the judges’ questions.
At the conclusion of the event, the following schools and teams were selected by the judges for award recognition, based upon the quality of their research presentations and their responses to judges’ questions:
International Division (High School)
1st Place Energy Dependence East Greenwich High School, RI
2nd Place What About Our Health? Brockton High School, MA
3rd Place The Economic Strain of Prisons McDonogh 35 Senior High School, LA
4th Place Spreading Awareness and Finding
Solutions for Clean Water and Sanitation Townview School of Business, TX
Global Division
1st Place Supply Chain Ashfield Middle School, MA
2nd Place Climate Change Ashfield Middle School, MA
We were also fortunate to have two inspirational keynote speakers.
During the morning session, we were joined by Loida Lewis who is the current Chair and Chief Executive Officer for TLC Beatrice, and the first Filipino woman to pass the New York bar without attending law school in the United States. An inspiring force to be reckoned with, Mrs. Lewis concluded her speech with the following advice: “focus your lives on goal setting, obedience, and determination”.
Our afternoon keynote speaker was Fred McKinney, the recently retired Carlton Highsmith Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Lender School of Business at Quinnipiac University, and former president and chief executive officer at the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council. In his closing remarks he advised students to: “Think big — have a dream, talk and listen to people; particularly those outside your normal circle, help others, and love yourself.
Thank you to all of our participating schools:
Archbishop Carroll High School, Washington, DC
Ashfield Middle School. Brockton, MA
BASE Chicago, Chicago, Ill
Benjamin Franklin High School, Cambria, Heights, NY
Brockton High School, Brockton, MA
East Greenwich High School, East Greenwich, RI
John Philip Sousa <idle School, Washington, DC
McDonogh 35 Senior High School, New Orleans, LA
Townview School of Business and Management, Dallas, TX
Thank you to all of our supervising educators who supported their students:
Sam Anderson
Sherrell Tolbert Batts
Tiffany Banks Brown
Peter Czymbor
Matthew Genua
Donald Hess
Jamison Martin
Kevin Miles
Michelle Ming
Dr. Patricia Page
Cedric Turner
Global Economic Symposium -2022
