Zicklin Undergrads Win $10,000 in National Policy Competition

Two Zicklin undergraduates representing Baruch College won this year’s Up to Us Campus Competition, a nationwide contest created to raise awareness of the impact of U.S. fiscal and economic policy issues.

The duo beat out schools from across the country—including SUNY College at Old Westbury, Northwestern University, and the University of California, Irvine—to win this year’s contest and its $10,000 prize. The competition, now in its ninth year, was created by Up to Us, a national nonpartisan initiative dedicated to building a sustainable economic and fiscal future for America’s youth.

Nayancie Matthews (BBA, ’22)

Nayancie Matthews (BBA, ’22), a finance and international business major, was the team’s leader. After initiating the Up to Us campaign at Baruch, she recruited Tasnia Hussain (BBA, ’22), a digital marketing and communications major.

Nayancie and Tasnia used digital and social platforms to overcome the restrictions of the Covid-19 lockdown. During the fall 2020 semester, they hosted 32 virtual events with 21 different on- and off-campus organizations, engaging 5,000 of their peers across New York City through classroom presentations, campus partnerships, and creative social media content, and submitting more than 1,500 signed Up to Us pledges to 75 elected officials and city representatives.

Tasnia Hussain (BBA, ’22)

The Zicklin team also established a relationship with the New York City Comptroller to discuss the city’s budgeting and debt challenges, and partnered with Baruch’s debate team on “Debt to Finish,” a debate on the national debt. At the debate, Baruch and Zicklin professors from the economics, policy, law, and finance departments participated along with city officials to provide fact-checking, feedback, and answers to attendees’ questions.

Nayancie said that working on the campaign enabled her to develop a personal habit of keeping track of economic issues, “and encouraged me to continue to ask why—why certain economic indicators are affecting others.” She also learned how to lead a team and encourage others to use their voice to advocate for change.

“Too often as students, we diminish our power for advocacy because we don’t think we have what’s needed to create change,” Nayancie added. “But we do.”

Categories: Current_Students, News