Wall Street Journal Challenge stimulates high-impact learning

Mays Business School hosted the Wall Street Journal Challenge for the second year in a row Feb. 26-28. The challenge brings students from business schools across the nation together to test their knowledge of current events in a fast-paced competition.

In addition to Texas A&M University, the business schools represented came from Emory University, Miami University, Michigan State University, Providence College, The Ohio State University, University of Arizona, University of Kentucky, University of Michigan and the University of Texas.

To prepare for the competition, students spent five weeks studying the Wall Street Journal.

Representing Texas A&M were Business Honors students Tyler Pavlas ’16 and Josh Chacko ’16 and industrial engineering major Matt Baumgartner ’16. The team was coached by finance executive professor Ed White.

The competition consisted of both individual and team rounds. In the Individual Challenge, students tested their knowledge of the Wall Street Journal through written quizzes. In the Team Challenge, the teams of three competed in rapid, verbal question-and-answer rounds.

The champions this year were the students from the Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University. In second place was the team from the Gatton College of Business at the University of Kentucky. In third place was the team representing Texas A&M University and Mays Business School at Texas A&M University.

Chacko also placed third place in the Individual Challenge.

Mays was proud to host an event that encourages students to engage in high-impact learning and fosters connections that cross state boundaries, said Business Honors Assistant Director Eric Newman, who coordinated the event this year and coached Texas A&M’s team last year. “Overall, the weekend was a resounding success thanks to the hard work of a team of volunteers from around Mays and graduate student judges from MS Marketing and the Full-Time MBA programs,” he said.