The first award of $100 goes to a junior individual exhibit that did a great job recognizing important economic concepts of war including reallocation, scarcity, opportunity costs, technology and women in the labor force. He exposed the value of women in the labor force, the sacrifices they made and that we would not have been able to win World War II without their contributions. For this, let’s give a round of applause to Ashton Miller for his “Operation Torch: The Turning Point of World War II” junior individual exhibit.

The second award of $150 goes to the junior group exhibit who understood the difference between command and market economy. They addressed all the economic concepts they cited in their application for this economics award; role of incentives, role of government, and allocation of goods and services, by each student taking a turn to answer our judge’s various questions. Collectively, they understood the key to reunification was the use of a single currency. For this, let’s give a round of applause to Hannah Luna, Harper Stanley and Sophia Tyrell-Knott for their “The Berlin Wall: A City Divided, A Country Reunited” junior group exhibit.

The third and last cash award of $200 goes to the senior individual exhibit that very articulately demonstrated a mastery of economic concepts, like externalities and market structure. She recognized how forcing employees to work at low wages and in unsafe conditions not only benefitted employers with higher profits, but also the buyers of the garments by paying lower prices . . . all without even having taken a course in economics yet. For this, let’s give a round applause to Emily Park for her “Flames of Conflict, Embers of Compromise – The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire” senior individual exhibit.