2012-2013

The winning team's essay

The winner of this year's Challenge is a team from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Click here to download the 2012-2013 winning team's essay.

The winning team's video

Special Recognitions

Due to the record number of submissions this year, iOme has decided to recognize several other teams for ither their video or paper submission.

Read an essay submission by a team from the University of Georgia-Athens.

Read an essay submission by a team from the University of the Incarnate Word.

Read an essay submission by a team from the Virginia Tech.

View a video submission by a team from Bentley University:

View a video submission by a team from John Brown University:

View a video submission by a team from the University of Hartford:

View a video submission by a team from the University of Nevada at Las Vegas:

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In Their Words

“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
“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
“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
“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 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
"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
"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!

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.