EMU was well represented by its best and brightest students at professional conferences in the past year, thanks to financial grants provided to winning applicants in the first round of Travel Awards for the 2006-07 academic year.

One of the more notable grants allowed four students to travel to Chicago for Fed Challenge, an event sponsored by the Federal Reserve System, the government body that oversees the nation’s banking system and sets its monetary policy.

In the Challenge, teams of students from universities do three things: (1) review and analyze recent macroeconomic performance such as unemployment, inflation rates and national output growth; (2) make a prediction of what is likely to happen to these aspects of the economy in the near future; (3) and make a recommendation of what the Fed should do with monetary policy with respect to its target for the Federal Funds’ interest rate, and its supply of reserve assets, to the nation’s private banking system.

Teams first compete at the regional level, with winners there advancing to the national competition in Washington, D.C. EMU and 12 other schools competed at the Chicago regional. Each team made a 20-minute Powerpoint presentation before a panel of three judges from the staff of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. A 15-minute question and answer session followed. In its first year of competition, EMU finished second to Northwestern University, which won both the Chicago regional and national competition last year.

The travel grants are made from the Student Travel Fund. For more information on the fund or to make a contribution, e-mail Jill Hunsberger at jill.hunsberger@emich.edu or call 734.487.0277.

More travel award winners:
• Svetlana Aksenova, Catherine Adams, Hunter Lockwood, Hannah Morales, Maria Moreno de Rollins, Dan Parker, Amy Renaud, Jeremy Taylor and Martin Warin attended the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Sponsor: Professor Helen Aristar-Dry
• Seven students attended the National Communication Association conference in San Antonio, Texas: Professor Ray Quiel sponsored Richard Brophy; Professor Michael Tew sponsored communicaion and theatre arts students Amy Clark, Christine Haas, Nadja Koeing, Jennifer Levine and Deborah Samuels; and Professor Joe Ohren sponsored poliical science student Vanessa Ferguson
• Carrie Buist, Lisa Kruse and Chadd Powell traveled to the American Society of Criminology conference in Los Angeles, Calif. Sponsor: Professor Donna Killingbeck
• David Kushman, Leah Petrovich and Lindsey Robinson, mentored by Professor William Tucker, participated in the National Council of Teachers of English convention in Nashville, Tenn.
• Rachel Bricklin and Olivia Munzer attended the annual North American Symposium on Bat Research in Wilmington, N.C., with Professor Allen Kurta
• Lauren Earls and Courtney Fons participated in the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies conference in Hollywood, Calif. Sponsors: Professor Dean Lauterbach (Earls) and Professor Ellen Koch (Fons)
• Katherine Porter attended the annual conference of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies in Chicago. Sponsor: Professor Ellen Koch
• Melissa Grey participated in the National Multicultural Conference and Summit in Seattle, Wash. Sponsor: Professor Silvia vonKluge
• David Walton attended the National Council for Black Studies conference in San Diego. Sponsor: Professor Joseph Engwenyu
• Michael Alber traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, for a summer literary seminar. Sponsor: Professor Jeffrey Parker
• Jessica Boynton went to Sydney, Australia, to conduct linguistic fieldwork research. Sponsor: Professor Anthony Aristar

Competing in the Windy City: Four students participated in the Fed Challenge, guided by David Crary (seated), a professor of economics. From left, the students are: Gary Campbell, Patricia Cox, Monica Long and Cedric York, a graduate student who served as assistant coach.