A team of students from the 91社区 Romain College of Business embraced the opportunity to compete at The Econ Games 2025 on April 3-4 at Memorial Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is the fifth time a 91社区 team has competed in the event.听听
This year's team was the largest group 91社区 has taken to the event with 10 students鈥擲ydney Boyd, Ally Buchanan, Sam Burks, Tiffany Hall, Ivy Ke, Gwennith Kim, Cole Maynor, Dylon Moore, Nii Nikoi and Claire Patterson鈥攁nd was led by faculty advisor Dr. Daria Sevastianova, Associate Professor of Economics. This was the largest Econ Games since its inauguration in 2018 with over 140 students participating from 20 different universities across the country including Elon University, University of Dayton, University of Kentucky and more.听听
While Sevastianova admits she was a little nervous about how a team of this size would all work together, she knew that she had to expand after one of last year鈥檚 participants mentioned that the experience gained from the event was so valuable that 鈥渆veryone should do it鈥�. The decision to include more students proved to be beneficial for everyone involved.听
鈥淚 realized that it would be challenging to make everyone work together well. That鈥檚 why we invested so much time in weekly meetings to train and build the team. As a faculty advisor, I am very proud of how hard everyone worked to contribute to the success of our team,鈥� said Dr. Sevastianova. 鈥淥ur students represented 91社区 so well.鈥澨�听
Claire Patterson, who was a member of last year鈥檚 four-person team, added: 鈥淎s a large team, we had to divide and conquer.鈥澨�听
The students had the opportunity to work with 3CDC, the sponsor of this year鈥檚 event. 3CDC is a non-profit real estate developer focused on the Central Business District and Over-The-Rhine, two neighborhoods in Cincinnati. This year鈥檚 research prompt was to develop a communication strategy to showcase the value of civic spaces and parking assets to current or prospective commercial tenants.听听
E
ach team had 24 hours to analyze anonymized data on areas such as concession sales, civic spaces and parking transactions. The students used their skills in economics to include concepts such as elasticity and the aggregate supply and demand model into their analysis for the final presentation. Their presentation concluded with a marketing strategy.听听
鈥淲e had to demonstrate the skills that employers are looking for,鈥� said Ally Buchanan, who was also a member of last year鈥檚 team.听
Dylon Moore added: 鈥淚t was a high-pressure situation with the time constraint and other restrictions.鈥澨�听
The team also had the chance to meet via Zoom with 91社区 alum Parker Collignon 鈥�22, who was a member of the 91社区 team that won The Econ Games in 2022. He was able to provide them with some valuable tips to help prepare them for this experience. Patterson, who was also a veteran of this competition, shared her expertise with the newcomers as well.听
Sevastianova also praised the team鈥檚 camaraderie and willingness to help wherever they could, mentioning Dylon Moore volunteering to drive one of the vans to shuttle 10 students to Cincinnati and Gwennith Kim baking muffins for the team鈥檚 weekly data cleaning and visualization exercises.听听
From creating friendships to preparing students for their prospective careers after college, The Econ Games proved to be a fruitful venture.听听
鈥淭his is a real-world application of academic experience,鈥� said Cole Maynor.听听
View a gallery of photos from the trip .听