Our delegation of young economists on the world stage.
Earlier this month, FEE sent 10 top-scoring students to compete in the International Final Round of the Economics Olympiad, held at the International Olympic Academy in Ancient Olympia, Greece. Through FEE’s newly launched Americas Challenge, students from across the region gained access to one of the world’s premier economics competitions, where they strengthened their knowledge of economics, finance, and public policy while engaging with peers from 32 countries. The experience helped participants sharpen their analytical skills, broaden their global perspectives, and build connections with like-minded young leaders. The delegation’s outstanding performance—including a second-place overall finish, a first-place win in the Financial Policy Challenge, and seven individual medals—reflected both the students’ dedication and FEE’s success in expanding access to high-quality economics education and developing the next generation of economic thinkers.
The Economics Olympiad was founded in 2016 to promote economic education among high school students around the world, and it has grown rapidly since. In 2026 alone, 63 countries participated in the school round of the competition, with more than 160,000 students sitting for the first qualifying test.
This year marked FEE’s first involvement in the competition with the launch of the Americas Challenge, a qualifying regional round designed specifically to give students across the Americas a pathway to the International Final Round. The response to the Americas Challenge exceeded expectations, with more than 1,400 students from over 128 schools in 10 countries taking part in the initial School Round, an online exam administered during the last two weeks of February. From that pool, the top 100 scorers were invited to an in-person testing event in May hosted at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City. FEE then selected the 10 highest-scoring students from that round to travel to Greece to compete in the International Final Round and represent the Americas Challenge.
FEE’s 10-student delegation delivered a standout performance, placing second overall among all national and regional delegations and taking first place in the Financial Policy Challenge, a dedicated track that tests students’ applied policy skills. Individually, 7 of FEE’s 10 students placed among the top 50 competitors worldwide. Leading the way was Izabella Wan, who earned a gold medal and placed fourth overall among 147 competitors. Impressive as the results were, the Economics Olympiad is designed to do more than crown winners; it is meant to inspire students to deepen their economic knowledge so that they may better understand the world they will one day help lead.
Izabella put it best in her own words:
My name is Izabella Wan, and I’m a student at Hunter College High School in New York, USA. I first got into economics because I wanted to understand economic phenomena, such as inflation, that I saw around me. I think that economics is important because it is a tool that helps policymakers determine what policies actually cause particular outcomes, providing evidence about which programs are most effective at solving pressing issues like poverty and economic development.
This year, I competed in the Economics Olympiad for the first time. After making it past the school round, I traveled to Guatemala and then to Greece for the intercontinental and international finals. There, I met intelligent and inspiring students and guest speakers from around the world, encountering perspectives completely different from mine. Throughout my Economics Olympiad journey, FEE has been an integral part of my experience. FEE created the pathway for me and other students from the Americas to qualify for the International Final Round and provided useful prep materials. At the International Final Round, after three days of testing across microeconomics, macroeconomics, and finance, I earned a gold medal and placed 4th overall.
Outside of the Economics Olympiad, I lead a nonprofit organization I cofounded a couple of years ago called Girls for Econ, which provides free economics education to girls around the world through courses, workshops, and educational resources. As someone who has been lucky enough to have access to economics education as a high school student, I wanted to give other girls that same opportunity and inspire them to pursue economics.
The success of this year’s Americas Challenge and the delegation’s strong showing in Greece demonstrate the impact of FEE’s mission to expand access to economic education for students throughout the Americas. With participation already outpacing expectations in its first year, FEE looks forward to building on this momentum and continuing to prepare the next generation of economic thinkers for the world stage.
