Posts Tagged ‘iOme Challenge’

Michigan Tech’s School of Business and Economics has made it to the top 10 videos in the iOMe Challenge. As a part of the 3rd annual iOme Money Smart Week Video Contest, our students have a chance to win $250.00 for first place.  Vote for the winner by Liking the “Ome Challenge” Page and vote in the pole found on the wall of their Facebook Page.

Our team needs your votes because the winner will be selected through voting on Facebook. Take a minute to vote and spread the word to your friends!  Click here to Vote the for the Michigan Tech Team!  Go Huskies!

Voting ends TOMORROW Thursday, May 2nd at Midnight CST.

Coleman Segal to attend McGeorge School of Law.

The School of Business and Economics wants to congratulate Coleman Segal for his acceptance into the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. We’re so proud!

Despite being accepted to UC Berkeley out of high school, Segal chose to pursue his undergraduate degree at Michigan Tech.  After visiting his Aunt and Uncle in the Houghton as a child, he has always loved the area. The wild, beautiful surroundings, the opportunity to participate in the vibrant folk music scene, and the impressive academic reputation were all factors in his decision to come to Tech.

After researching universities, he learned of the Economics program at Michigan Tech.  Economics interested Segal in high school because it can be applied to so many different aspects of life.  Segal said, “The study of economics is in large part an effort to understand the mechanics of a functioning society, and so it relates to many different fields. It also provides a good background for law school, which I have planned to attend since high school.” 

Segal is a California native and will soon return to his home state to pursue his law degree from one of the top 100 Law Schools in the nation.   Applying and being accepted to five law schools –Marquette University in Milwaukee, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University, and Albany Law School– Segal selected the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law and will begin classes next fall. In addition to their impressive reputation, Segal said he chose McGeorge School of Law based on their location in Sacramento, California.  He finds the area interesting as a center of government, with multiple courthouses at different levels in the immediate area. 

Crediting his experiences with extracurricular activities such as the iOMe Challenge and the Pavlis Institute for advancing his goals of attending law school, Segal noted that Michigan Tech prepared him well for continuing his education.  Mastering skills such as writing and researching papers, in many different subjects, have been instrumental for the pursuit of his law degree.

Four teams of Michigan Tech students competed in the 2011 iOMe Challenge, that builds awareness for ways that local organizations might engage the Y or Millennial generation to think about their own future, 40 years from now.  Three of the four MTU teams made it to the final round of judging and one team has received an honorable mention in the 2011 competition. Students were judged on a video submission (above) and an essay.  The team receiving the honorable mention was awarded $2,000 and was composed of:

• Katie O’Connell, Economics major
• Tianlu Shen, Environmental Engineering major
• Adam Stigers, Economics major
• Teddy Broe, Economics major
• Walker Derby, Finance major

Lecturer in Economics, Emanuel Oliveira, was the academic advisor of the four teams competing in this year’s iOMe Challenge.  Commenting on the contest’s two components, Oliveira said, “The students put together an excellent essay that contained innovative policy recommendations, considerable statistical analysis, and it was very well written.”

Team leader of the winning team and economics major, Katie O’Connell, noted that it was amazing to find out that their group had received honorable mention in the iOMe Challenge.  Recalling her feelings prior to the competition and why she chose to compete she said, “I remember hoping to do well!  Receiving an honorable mention was great. I decided to compete in this challenge to get a closer look at how to encourage people to save money.  It truly is a challenge in an economy where interest rates are so low and there is no obvious and immediate reward. But it’s also critically important to the future of our economy, and even our society, to reverse the downward savings trend. I hope that our participation in this process will at least help to open discussion as well as spark ideas and interest in creating an America that saves more.”

Congrats to all of this years competitors and Dr. Emanuel Oliveira!

iOMe results from 2010-2011

Four teams of Michigan Tech students submitted videos for the iOMe Challenge.

Lecturer in Economics, Emanuel Oliveira, is leading four teams of students in this year’s iOMe Challenge.  Students formed their own teams and were encouraged to include individuals from a broad skill set to include members who have policy expertise and also other with video production skills.  The students are competing for the top prize of $10,000 by completing the contest’s two components of an essay and a video that illustrates the key elements of the essay.  The 2011 challenge question is: Why do people today feel it is much harder to engage in financial saving than earlier generations when, on average, the earlier generations were much poorer than today?  What would you propose as a solution to change and increase saving rates?

After hearing about the challenge in Oliveria’s class last year, junior Eli Karttunen differed the opportunity one year and upon hearing the announcement for the challenge in class this year Karttunen couldn’t resist getting involved.  He chose to compete this year because he saw the challenge as an opportunity to learn more about policy making and offer solutions.  Karttunen noted, “To see other students taking on significant real world problems that will face our generation and coming up with real solutions is inspiring that one day the issues we face today will be corrected through innovative thinking and proactive policy formation.”

Oliveira knows the significance of this project will be beneficial to the students who participate by exposing them to the policy making process.  Oliveira notes, “Fixing the savings rate crisis in America will take a highly concerted effort and will likely require people to make behavioral adjustments that may cause minor discomfort in order to promote a long run sustainable savings scheme.” This challenge is important and necessary because the more people know about a problem, the more likely it is to get corrected.

Here the videos that have been submitted by Michigan Tech students and the names of the names of the participating students:

Team 1: Cole Nichols, Eli Karttunen, Bryan Endres, Adam Zwiscza

Team 2: Rachel Ristau, Jesse Patrick, Thomas Harri, Josh Floyd

Team 3: Teddy Broe, Katie O’Connel, Walker Dery, Adam Stigers, Tianlu Shen

Team 4: Coleman Segal, Genny Gierke

Calling all students!

Lecturer in economics, Emanuel Oliveira, is looking for students this fall to enter the iOMe Challenge. The challenge, started in 2009 discusses how local organizations might engage the so-called Y or Millennial generation to think about their own future, 40 years from now.

The iOMe challenge they designed consists of two components; an essay and a video.

Essay Contest (due October 31, 2011): Write an essay of no more than 10,000 words that answers why do people today feel it is much harder to engage in financial savings than earlier generations when, on average, the earlier generations were much poorer than today? What would you propose as a solution to change and increase savings rates?

Video Contest (due November 21, 2011): Produce a short video (60 seconds or less in length) that compellingly illustrates some of the findings, either the reasons for the decline in savings or solution(s). The video should be crafted as a visual representation of the key elements of the Essay. You might think about the essay as the screenplay and the video as the movie.

Prizes

Winning team: $10,000 + $2000 (faculty advisor) + presentation in D.C. to members of Congress.
Honorable Mention(s): $2,000 + $500 (faculty advisor)

Last year students Coleman Segal and Adam Eidelsafy were finalists in the competition and created the video below to illustrate the truth about the personal savings rate.

Are you interested?

Contact Emanuel Oliveira if you are interested as an individual or as a team at emolivei@mtu.edu.