Judging & Guidlines

Judges:

Final entries will be judged by our Blue-Ribbon Judges Panel consisting of:

Angela Lyons, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Economic and Financial Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Martin Merzer, Pulitzer Prize Winner and former Senior Reporter, Miami Herald; President of Martin Merzer Creative Services Inc.
Michael Price, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Tennessee – Knoxville
Laura Schwartz, Former Special Assistant to the President and the White House Director of Events, Clinton Administration; Principal, The White House Strategies
Charles Wise, Professor and Founding Director of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at the Ohio State University

To read more about each of the judges, please click here.

Judging Criteria:

Entries will be judged based on the following criteria. The Essay should be innovative/original, well researched, economically and politically sound, and should be something that young people would be drawn into. The video should capture viewer’s attention. It should serve as a motivator for people to talk about the issue, spread the word by forwarding the video to others, and read the Essay so they could fully understand the issue at hand.

Each component of the judging criteria carries a different weight and has a certain number of points that can be allocated. The team with the highest number of TOTAL points wins the competition.

To download a PDF version of Judging Criteria, click here.

ESSAY

1. The Quality of the Essay. (How well is the essay written, logically organized, etc.) _____/15

2 The Originality/Creativity in Presenting the Issue. (Is this a new perspective? Is it an old perspective that has been enhanced?) _____/15

3. The Soundness of Analysis. (Is the essay based on a strong foundation of economic and social science research?) _____/15

4. The Soundness of Policy Analysis. (Is the essay based on solid policy research?) _____/10

5. How likely is it that young people will be motivated by the Essay? (Would this motivate young people to alter their saving behavior?) _____/20

TOTAL POINTS FOR THE ESSAY SECTION: _________/75

VIDEO

1.The Quality of the Video. (Is the sound quality good? Is the picture quality good? etc.) _____/10

2. The Originality of the Video. (How original /creative is the video?) _____/15

3. Thought Provoking/Attention Grabbing. (Does this video catch and keep your attention? Does it make you think about it after you saw it?) _____/20

4. How well does it express the basic issue at hand ? (Does it effectively illustrate the basic problem and / or solution?) _____/15

5. Does it motivate young people to take action? (Does it make you want to do something? Would you pass the video on to friends, family, etc.?) _____/15

TOTAL POINTS FOR THE VIDEO SECTION: _________/75

TOTAL POINTS FOR THE ENTIRE ENTRY: __________________/150

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In Their Words

“I fear for a generation; I fear for my children. I'm fully engaged with iOme because, well, my generation is partially responsible for making the mess. Instead of giving Gen Y another medal - or a pat on the back - MY Gen needs to break its back with some of the heavy lifting dead ahead. Lifting together, it'll work. iOme is our leverage.”

Michael Bina
Board Member, iOme Challenge
Managing Director
Intellectual Marketing, LLC
"I am honored to be involved in iOMe where you see students taking hold of their financial future and offer sound ideas for our country to move forward in economic prosperity. The most important thing we can do is empower this next generation of leaders and that empowerment is exactly what iOMe proudly provides!"

Laura Schwartz
The White House Director of Events, Clinton Administration
Speaker and Author of Eat, Drink & Succeed!
“I am involved with iOMe because I want to help young people to better understand how to provide for their own futures. College students face perhaps the most difficult financial environment in generations, and most of the pressures they feel are quite immediate - paying for college, finding a job, buying a car, looking toward starting a family. Lifelong financial security seems to many to be a just a dream. But there are things that young people can do right now that will have profoundly positive impacts that will last into retirement. It's important for those of us with more life experience and financial knowledge to help them see a better path.”

Kevin Quinn, Ph. D.
Board Member, iOme Challenge
Associate. Academic Dean & Professor of Economics
St. Norbert College
“For me, iOme Challenge is a meaningful organization of significant importance, not only in a contemporary context but also pertinent to the future of the world we live in. Our society has seemingly become too distant, relaxed and reliant on fiscal and monetary politics to realize that this naïve and misleading sense of comfort has the potential to result in a devastating outcome on our lives and those of generations to come. I am thrilled to be part of this organization and to help this cause and truly believe that we Millennials are prepared, willing and able to make a difference.”

Kevin Strack
Intern, Fall 2011
iOme Challenge
"Entering the iOMe Challenge is a great way for Millennials to understand and engage with one of the most challenging policy questions facing our nation: how to ensure their generation's economic security in retirement. If Millennials, who have the most to lose, aren't part of this societal discussion, they will lose the most."

James Choi
Associate Professor of Finance
Yale University
"It's no secret that we're all dealing with a variety of economic challenges, but no group faces more daunting economic trials -- or will be confronting these issues for longer periods -- than members of what has come to be known as the millennial generation. Surveys find that they're already deeply concerned about the nation's financial situation and about their own current economic situations. But, given the inevitability of changes that will lower the safety nets provided by Social Security and other government-sponsored retirement programs, it is absolutely essential that millennials begin thinking about retirement planning much earlier than was the case for other generations. That's why iOme is so important, so valuable. And that's why I'm so pleased to be associated with it."

Martin Merzer
President at Martin Merzer Creative Services Inc.
Former Senior Writer at The Miami Herald
“It is no longer about partisan interests or what once was – those interests haven’t brought much good and what worked years ago, doesn’t anymore. Now, it is about us – the young people of today – who want and deserve a great future, individually and as a generation. We should not and will not stand for being told that the bleak future is ahead. Isn’t something fundamentally wrong with that statement? Instead, we owe it to ourselves to understand the issues, talk about them and then create innovative solutions - and act on those today - so we make sure that the best is yet to come.”

Adi Redzic
Board Member & Managing Director
iOme Challenge
“Participating in the first iOme Challenge was fantastic. Our team won in 2009; the experience of pitching our ideas to our members of Congress was unique - and the money wasn't bad! - but I think the most rewarding part of the Challenge was working through a tough policy problem with a team of my peers. I'd recommend submitting an entry to any team or individual who's interested!"

Thomas Bradley Kent
Member of the Winning Team, inaugural iOme Challenge
Ph. D. student, University of Michigan

Disclaimer

Any and all opinions expressed in iOMe Challenge visual and written contest submissions are solely those of the contestants, and do not necessarily reflect those of the contestants' institutions, or of any member of the iOMe Challenge's Advisory Board, Blue Ribbon Panel of judges, or any of the contest's sponsors.