Situated on the fourth floor hallway in Upper School History Teacher Kevin Conlon’s classroom is Economics Club. Economics Club meets each Tuesday during U-Lunch to discuss the role of economics in the world, what it is, and how students can apply this to events in the world.

Junior Ian Shayne started Economics Club at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year.  Currently there are six active members who attend each week, with an additional four students who choose to attend more periodically. As a new club, members of Economics Club have chosen to not over advertise the club, keeping membership numbers lower.

“I would love to see more interest and more membership,” Upper School History Teacher Kevin Conlon said. “Just more people coming in and out to present and add to the conversation.”

Economics Club is a student run and organized club where the leaders present and hold conversation about anything and everything related to economics — including today’s economy, international economies and what economics involves in general. “There is always a lively conversation going on about something economics related,” Conlon said.

After hearing about The Northwestern Economics Tournament (NET) hosted by the the Northwestern Kellogg School of Business, Economics Club heads, Shayne, and juniors Matthew Turk and Rohan Jain, decided to enroll the club. In order to enroll in the tournament, the group had to elect a captain to be a point person, and Shayne, being the person who initially found the tournament, gained that position. On Saturday, April 6, four members of Parker’s Economics Club attended. Parker was one of the only high schools from Chicago in attendance, with most students coming from various states and suburbs beyond Chicago. According to Conlon, Parker was at a disadvantage in the tournament, seeing that most students in attendance were enrolled in AP or Honors economics, while Parker kids merely taught themselves.  

At the NET, students took an opening test for that assessed their overall knowledge of economics as a team. “We ended up getting a 28 out of 100 on the test,” Shayne said. “I am surprised we even got that many correct.

With economics being a new club, and this being Parker’s first year in attendance at NET, club members were not sure what to expect at the tournament.