Vestavia Sweeps Statewide Economics and Personal Finance Competitions

The top two teams in both Econ Challenge divisions pose with their winnings in the Liberty Park Fed.

On Wednesday, April 2, and Wednesday, April 9, VHHS teams dominated the Alabama Council for Economic Education’s annual economics and personal finance competitions. 

First was the Alabama Economics Challenge, in which twenty teams of four, split between two divisions, competed in the Liberty Park Federal Reserve. Vestavia brought two teams to the David Ricardo division (for students with no experience in Honors or AP Economics) and another two teams to the senior-level Adam Smith division. To determine who best understood economic concepts, both divisions began with two individual tests in micro and macroeconomics, followed by a group test in international trade and current economic events. 

Students then ate lunch while event staff tallied scores, after which competitors gathered to hear the results of their intellectual efforts: in both divisions, both Vestavia teams achieved the highest scores; moreover, Vestavia senior Ethan Melenevsky and sophomores Alan Sheng and Adam Zhao earned the highest individual scores in the Adam Smith and David Ricardo divisions, respectively. Elated as all teams were, however, the competition wasn’t over yet—both divisions still lacked state champions. The Alabama Economics Challenge concluded with a head-to-head contest between the top teams in each division, in which teams were given twenty seconds to identify key economic concepts and applications before submitting official answers using a whiteboard. 

Jack Hugunine, Pratul Danasekar, Arhaan Lalani, and Krish Chintareddy smile for a picture before their group test.

In the David Ricardo division, sophomores Adam Zhao, Alan Sheng, Connor Moorhouse, and Dev Patel claimed the top spot in a close match against Krish Chintareddy, Pratul Danasekar, Arhaan Lalani, and Jack Hugunine, winning by only three points out twenty questions. 

Lastly, the Adam Smith team of Andy Sheng, Ethan Melenevsky, Anjie Deng, and Benjamin Cusmariu secured an even closer victory against Cuewon Kim, Parker Liu, Sriram Brirur, and Terence Li, with only a two-point difference in their scores. 

Two Vestavia teams vie for the Adam Smith state championship.

Both state champion teams will compete in a national online semifinal test and advance to the final stage if they place in the top eight from their division. 

The next Wednesday, three Vestavia teams competed in the Alabama Personal Finance Challenge, which was hosted by the University of Alabama’s College of Human Environmental Sciences. Once again, Vestavia dominated the top spots, earning top scores in tests on spending, saving, credit, and risk, as well as a group test on investment. Additionally, Vestavia junior Jeffrey Zhao received the highest individual score from a pool of more than eighty students.

Jeffrey Zhao, top individual scorer in the Personal Finance Challenge, pictured with Coach Steven Johnson and Alabama State Treasurer Young Boozer III.

As with the Economics Challenge, the Alabama Personal Finance Challenge culminated in a showdown between the two highest-scoring teams—both Vestavia, of course—seniors Andy Sheng, Ethan Melenevsky, Anjie Deng, and Ben Cusmariu won with a razor-thin margin over senior Justin Zhou and juniors Jeffrey Zhao, Eric Wang, and Adi Sheelavant. 

State champions pose with Coach Johnson and State Treasurer Boozer.

The state champion team will compete in the National Personal Finance Challenge on June 1-2.