Above: The 2022 Global Economic Symposium team, from left: Noella Chretien (Class of 2025), Gabriella (Gigi) Giuliano (Class of 2022), Cayetano (Guy) Sanchez IV (Class of 2023), Eric Anastasio Blackiston (Class of 2025).

East Greenwich High School students place first in the Global Economic Symposium, and are heading to Wall Street! 

On Friday, March 25, high school teams from seven states (Ill., La., Mass., N.J., N.Y., R.I., and Texas) and the District of Columbia competed in the 8th Annual Global Economic Symposium hosted by Blacks on Wall Street and Empower Yourself.

The Global Economic Symposium (GES) nurtures the next generation of global leaders. It is a team- and research-based learning experience for secondary students that requires them to research a contemporary global issue and recommend economic actions, policies, and sustainable practices that have and may help mitigate the impact of this challenge on a global and local level. Students present their findings and defend their financially-feasible recommendations to a panel of industry executives, national thought and policy leaders, and post-secondary academicians.

The first-place team from East Greenwich High School – Cayetano Sanchez IV, Gabriella Giuliano, Eric Anastasio Blackiston and Noella Chretien, coached by Dr. Patricia Page – earned an all-expense-paid trip to New York City this spring where they will meet with financial industry executives and ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

Global Economic Symposium is part of the co-curricular programming associated with the Avenger Academy Finance & Entrepreneurship Pathway. It is an extended research and proposal defense project that students and their coach undertake outside of regularly-scheduled school hours. The event itself is typically a one-day, in-person format (though this year was virtual) that begins with a poster session followed by multiple presentation and defense sessions, depending on whether a team advances to the finals.