Waverly Competes In State Economics

15 students from Waverly High School qualified to compete at the statewide economics challenge at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on March 27.

In the Adam Smith Division, which includes AP and Honors students, Waverly’s team consisting of seniors Christian Dauel, Dillon Kell, Elizabeth Hall and junior Jennifer Russell finished sixth.

“The Adam Smith Division is basically the advanced division,” Kell said.

In the David Ricardo Division, or the survey course, three teams from WHS competed and senior Ester Gorbun, junior Paige McCaslin and sophomore Conner Stewart took tenth place, seniors Bret Roberts, John Faughn, Taylor Bodfield and junior Whitney Laritson took ninth and seniors Austin Loveless, Philip Faughn, Tony Trausch and junior Seth Howe stole second. Those who received second were rewarded with a cash prize, as well as medals and a trophy.

Economics involves the study of how people choose to use their resources, which is relevant to everyday life.

Its relevance to the real world is what intrigues certain students.

“Economics involves the decisions people make in their everyday life,” senior Tony Trausch said. “It’s not like I won’t use this stuff outside of high school.”

Considering the vast resources and options for classes in other schools that attend, this particular event is prominent for Waverly.

“It’s a national competition, and what makes it significant for us is we go against schools like Bellevue East, Omaha Westside and Lincoln Southwest, all of which offer a whole-year course and we have a semester course,” business education teacher Trent Goldsmith said. “That shows that we do a good job, the students must be pretty good and the program’s pretty good if we can compete against people like that.”

The team didn’t consider themselves prepared, so the high placing was a bit of a shock.

“We were by far the most ill-prepared team there,” senior Tony Trausch said. “I was surprised we were even in the running for the top five.”

Goldsmith has taken kids to this event for five years, and plans to continue doing so with his fondness for the economics program at Waverly High School.

“I always plan on having at least one team to go,” Goldsmith said. “And I really just like seeing the econ program grow.”