Last February 6 and 7, 2021, the UPLB Economics Society, in partnership with the UPLB Department of Economics, held its annual inter-high school scholastic economic convention online for the first time in history. ECONVERGENCE, which aims to promote appreciation of economics through the analysis of relevant social issues in the country, was held through Zoom and Discord.
In these two days, several sub-events were conducted, namely: EKONOMIKA Quiz Contest, Intellectual Encounter Debate Competition, Impromptu Speaking Competition, and Economics Teachers’ Convention (ETC). Meanwhile, some students joined pre-judged events, such as the Essay Writing Competition, the Traditional Poster-making Competition, and the Digital Poster-making Competition.
This year’s installment also featured a panel of three established economists that spoke at the forum—Mr. JC Punongbayan, a PhD candidate and co-founder of UsapangEcon, Mr. Carlo Asuncion, Chief Economist of Unionbank of the Philippines, and Mr. Sonny Africa, Executive Director of IBON Foundation. Their respective talks imparted valuable lessons about the country’s government responses and economic recovery to the participants and other members of the audience.
The event concluded with an awarding ceremony hailing the Top 3 winners of each sub-event. With a tight competition amongst the participants, Philippine Science High School-Main Campus, Philippine Science High School- Caraga Region Campus, and Batangas State University Integrated School bagged the Overall Champion, 1st runner up, and 2nd runner up awards respectively.
Of course, this event would not have been possible without the support of its partners and sponsors: UP Silakbo, The Parliament: UPLB Debate Society, WhenInManila.com, Inquirer, Batch Demand, Batch Cartel, and Batch Adam Smith of the UPLB Economics Society, The College Club, Lucky Boy Training, Lucky Boy Toppings, and of course, the UPLB Economics Society’s alumni association.
