Steven J. Green
School of International
& Public Affairs

P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School

Valerie Andrade
P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School
10th grade

Being part of the Euro Challenge competition was a very eye opening opportunity, and exposed me to topics I was previously not aware of. To start off the learning process requires you to choose a country and problem that you and your team wants to research. Throughout the span of a couple of months you and your teammates research and educate yourselves on the economic situation in the Euro Area as well as basic economic factors that you may not have known, such as inflation, GDP, and unemployment. Further on, you also research the reasons that are causing the problem you choose (in our case migration flows) and how it affects your country. You look for efficient and innovative solutions to solve this problem that will both benefit your economy and your citizens. As you are doing all this research you need to work together with your team, as those are the people who you depend on to help you research and present your findings. You slowly start to accumulate all this information into a presentation that will educate the listener of the situation at hand as well as grabs there attention and has a good flow. The Euro Challenge organization provides many helpful resources such as an orientation zoom meeting to cover the basic topics of economics and other zoom meetings that has us brainstorming diplomatic solutions to common problems in countries such as low birth rates. They also had many slides on their website that describe the economic situation in the Euro area more in depth, which in my case were very helpful in grasping economic concepts such as brain drain and what to do in the case of high/low inflation.
Being part of the Euro challenge had many benefits but one of the major ones for me was the opportunity to learn about economics. In my school there are no economic courses available for underclassmen and through middle and high school we don’t go very in depth into the topic. By being part of the Euro challenge, I was able to learn a great deal about economics and it is something that I’m extremely interested in. I plan to take further courses in economics while I dual enroll which will allow me to take my education to the next level. The Euro challenge also allowed me to learn about countries other than my own, and showed me insight on their economic and governmental problems. I learned about their past, present, and what they plan to do in the future regarding their citizen and economics policies. I learned by putting myself in government official shoes that there is much you need to take into consideration when making a policy/decision. You have to think about how it will benefit people, why people will be motivated to follow it, and how it will affect the country’s economy. I’m proud to say that the Euro challenge has inspired me to continue to have a part in the decision and policy making for countries, more specifically the United States.
Overall Euro Challenge has taught me many lessons, as well as opened my eyes to a whole different chapter of education (economics in Europe). I was given the opportunity to learn about economics and the experience of brainstorming what to do in real life economic scenarios. It’s eye opening to be able to educate yourself on a place that you are not familiar with and in turn it teaches you many valuable lessons. It also taught me to work in a group setting and how to support each other, forming many strong connections with the members of my team.

Linda Belletti
P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School

“When I grow up, I’m going to New york.” This is what seven-year-old me kept repeating to my grandma. I was constantly letting dreams and fantasies about my future fill the long wait, hoping they would one day all come true. But, as we know, dreams don’t always pay the ticket to our destination. Until they do.

Participating in the Euro Challenge has not only given me the opportunity to learn so much about the economy and politics of Europe, but has also helped me to better understand the future of our world. It has provided me with insight to think and reflect on the social, economic, and political problems our generation has to soon face. However, through the Euro challenge, being able to see the passion and fascination coming from a young group of people has allowed me to realize that my generation is made up of dreamers and doers.

In addition to the many travel opportunities I received, Euro Challenge has also allowed me to grow as a person. It has changed the way I perceive the world and the future I see for myself both personally and career-wise. Being able to portray an important political figure and having the confidence and courage to present our ideas to high-class, educated adults was such a life-changing moment for me. This opportunity has allowed me to understand why I am so attracted to the way a society functions economically, politically, and environmentally. Having the chance to understand and learn the way adults solve problems today has made me want to strive to work just as hard to make a better tomorrow for myself, my generation, and the future tocome. And for this, I am grateful.

Remembering my walk through those New York streets, I can only encourage others to participate in this amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity. And although there will never be enough words to describe how much I have appreciated this experience, I will forever be grateful for the person it has made me grow into today.

Esther Cruz
P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School
11th grade

When my teacher talked to me about being part of the Euro Challenge, I can say with all certainty that I had no idea of everything that would be involved and, overall, how unique the experience would be. This opportunity is something I will definitely remember as one of the highlights of my 11th-grade year.

One word I can use to describe preparing for the Euro Challenge is enriching. Thanks to the competition, I learned about the situation and reality of many European countries, specifically those members of the European Union. Before entering the competition, I was unaware of how important and beneficial the European Union is for its continent and the world. What has amazed me the most is the single market policy the EU makes use of, as it allows not only goods and services but also people to move freely around 27 European countries. Through research, I immersed myself in current political and social situations that some European countries were and are currently going through and how their governments act to create efficient solutions. For example, I became aware of how France's citizens are participating in protests against the retirement age increase, why they are doing it, and how its government is acting toward them. I mention this as evidence of how the Euro Challenge opens the door to being conscious of outside struggles that can eventually affect our countries. We can learn from others' difficulties to help prevent them from happening to ourselves.

Furthermore, as my team's topic involved understanding migration flows, I learned how population movement significantly impacts the economy, education, industry, and many other sectors of a country. A big part of the Euro Challenge was getting in the shoes of those whose everyday job is to address and effectively tackle the problems regarding these sectors. So for our presentation, we decided that each team member would impersonate an important political figure for France and the EU. I chose to be France's Prime Minister, Elizabeth Borne, and over time learned about her role and planned for it. Doing this opened my understanding of how politicians and their decisions are crucial for the development of a country. Moreover, using terms such as inflation and GDP, which were unfamiliar to me before, eventually became easy to comprehend and analyze. With this came learning how to interpret graphs and identify rates of increases and decreases. To conclude, the Euro Challenge brought many benefits to my academic and personal life. Learning new concepts, working with a team, bringing ideas to the table, and thoroughly studying a script are things that help me grow my character during the competition process. Undoubtedly, it was an experience I could recommend to everyone who wants to expand their knowledge and use their problem-solving skills in practice.

Moo Nam Wometcha
P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School
10th grade

My name is Moo Nam Wometcha, a 10th grader who attended the Euro Challenge under the supervision of Mr. Hasan, Mrs. Santiago, and Mrs. Monzon. The Euro Challenge was proposed to us on March 15th and the date to qualify for state was on March 26th. The topic we were given pertained to the Migration Flows in France and what solutions we discovered to solve the issue.

As we look into France’s migration flows, we found lots of issues regarding overpopulation, unemployment rates, and working-class citizens. Our first issue was to tackle unemployment rates since it would seem that with the amount of immigration into France (over the last 20 years since 2022, immigration has equated to around 2.3 million) there would be a significantly smaller percentage however unemployment rates equaled to a record low of 6.1% (around 4 million people in France). A solution to this issue is to have the immigrants work in jobs with high unemployment rates like the medical industry. We would fund their stay but would direct them to live in cities with the least population, teach them the language to interact with everyone and educate them in their respective fields. In return, they will work for 7 years but would be given a work visa. Once the visa expires, we would send them back to their homeland where they could help build their economy as well. This would tie in the unemployment and migration issues however regarding overpopulation, this would only increase the amount of people living in France so to tackle this predicament, we will integrate quotas towards the top 5 countries that make up the most migration to France (Algeria, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia, and Italy). Instead of just leaving the immigrants to stay in their countries, we would redirect them to countries in the EU that have the least migration rate like Luxembourg and Malta, we would also send them to countries with a higher percentage of old people like Italy. This is to help build their economy and also strengthen the EU economy as they are currently facing high inflation.

Lots of information was gathered throughout the group, it took research and studying about countries outside of America and their current situation. I will greatly recommend the Euro Challenge as it shows a different perspective to how life is and problems those countries are facing. I’ve already started spreading awareness of the Euro Challenge in the hopes of getting more people to join as it’s extremely informative about countries in the European Union. Trying to find solutions to problems these countries were facing was extremely exciting yet challenging. Figuring out a way to tie in all of the problems to find a solution both long term and short term was difficult but, in the end, if these solutions were implemented it would, it will most likely work. This was the first Euro Challenge I have ever attended but I still learned so much about the world and I’m grateful that I was able to be a part of this journey.

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Florida Atlantic University High School

Fernanda Salomon Del Blanco
Florida Atlantic University High School
9th grade

From learning more about the European economy to the team-building process to the great opportunity to travel to New York to do it all Euro Challenge was a fantastic experience. My team and I greatly enjoyed the process of creating and researching a presentation on the migration flows of Slovakia, the Euro Challenge allowed us to explore new ideas and careers as we learned about influences to the economy, it also helped build new relationships with officials in the country’s government as well as fostering relationships with people within our school and other participants. I am looking forward to possibly participating again next year and am incredibly thankful for being afforded the opportunity of taking part in this wonderful event.

Gracie Plonisch
Florida Atlantic University High School
9th grade

I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to participate in Euro Challenge. It was really an enlightening experience, and I loved getting to research and present on the Euro Area economy. I enjoyed using our knowledge from our research on the Euro Area economy and the economy of our country, Slovakia, to create solutions to improve their migration flows, since our topic was Managing Migration Flows. This experience has opened up my world view and allowed me to learn more about the Euro Area economy as well as the sort of jobs that could eventually be available for me to pursue. Thank you.

Nathanael Lecky
Florida Atlantic University High School
10th grade

My name is Nathanael Lecky and over the past couple of months, I have had the pleasure of being able to participate in the Euro Challenge. Through this fantastic opportunity, I was able to further my knowledge of the Euro Area and Slovakia in general. This challenge allowed me to improve my public speaking skills, trained me to think under pressure, and most importantly taught me how to manage working with a team. As a sophomore, this was my last year to participate in the Euro Challenge, but the experience gained through it will follow me throughout the remainder of high school and will undoubtedly translate into my professional career. I would highly encourage everyone to take up this challenge and become better versed in the world of economics and international relations.