A team of four Cal State Fullerton economics students placed among the top five teams in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) inaugural Academic Challenge.
Quinlan Cantrell, Owen Hoogeveen, Ivan Patel and Quynh Phan, all members of the Class of 2021, competed against undergraduates from such research-focused institutions as the University of Chicago, University of Delaware and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The competition centered on examining the impact of community banks on local economic development, and involved months of research, writing a paper and preparing for a 15-minute virtual presentation with Q&A in front of a six-judge panel of community bank CEOs and FDIC economics and banking officials.