The “2024 Business School X Department of Economics Festival” (hereinafter BizXEcon Festival), which started on Wednesday, May 1, and continued for a month, led to an end on Saturday, June 1, with the closing ceremony. The BizXEcon Festival, a joint event to encourage exchanges between students at the Business School and the Department of Economics, has been held with the support of the College of Commerce Alumni Association. Co-hosted by Deungdae, the 38th Business School Student Council, and the Department of Economics Supporters, this year’s festival consisted of three programs: the Family Program, the Investment Competition, and the Soccer Competition.

Although the undergraduate students at the Business School and the Department of Economics both become members of the College of Commerce Alumni Association after graduation, exchanges between the two departments during the undergraduate program have been limited. Accordingly, the “Family Program” has been launched to allow undergraduate students in the two departments to interact closely. The “Family Program” is a competition through which 4 to 5 students from the Business School and the Department of Economics form a family and take on various missions throughout May. 190 Business School and Department of Economics students applied for the program to create 38 families and engaged in approximately 150 missions throughout four weeks. Group 30 took first place by being the first to score 595 points, followed by Group 6 (595 points), Group 5 (365 points), and Group 12 (225 points), which took second place. Group 24 (130 points), Group 22 (95 points), Group 31 (65 points), Group 20 (60 points), Group 27 (55 points), and Group 35 (55 points) came in third.

The “Investment Competition,” where students from the Business School and the Department of Economics showcased their skills by using their knowledge in their majors, also ended in fierce competition. The competition was divided into the stock and the futures categories using Kiwoom Securities’ mock investment service. 148 undergraduate students from the Business School and the Department of Economics participated as individuals or teams of two or three members. Over the course of a month, participants invested based on news and various information, just like the actual stock market, and the tension built with the disclosure of weekly rankings of the top rates of return. In the end, student Kim at the Business School won the stock category with a return of 26.61%, and the winners of the futures category were student Oh at the Business School and student Ju at the College of Liberal Studies with a return of 71.37%.

Lastly, a departmental soccer competition was held between the Business School and the Department of Economics. Over the course of a month, qualifying tournaments were held to select the representative of the Business School from the four classes - Gilbut, Paegi, Hanbit, and Baekdu - and the representative of the Department of Economics from three classes - Bulkkot, B, and C. Paegi Class at the Business School and C Class at the Department of Economics were selected as representatives of each respective departments and a final match was held on Saturday, June 1, at the Main Stadium. After a heated competition, the Paegi Class at the Business School won 2:0 against the Department of Economics’ C Class.

The final soccer match, as well as the award ceremony for the Family Program, the Investment Competition, and the soccer competition, was held on the final day of the festival (1st). The ceremony was attended by Professors Chamna Yoon and Jaewon Choi at the Department of Economics, Moon-soon Cho, the President of the College of Commerce Alumni Association, Honorary President Young-an Park, Vice Presidents Sang-guk Jeon and Cheol-young Kim, and Secretary-General Jae-ik Lee at the College of Commerce Alumni Association.

The Preparatory Committee for the BizXEcon Festival, consisting of twenty students at the Deungdae, the 38th Business School Student Council, and the Exchange Project Team at the Department of Economics Supporters, worked tirelessly for three months for the hosting of the BizXEcon Festival. The festival ended on a successful note with the endeavor of the three teams: the Family Program Team, the Investment Competition Team, and the Soccer Competition Team.

It is with the hope that the 2024 BizXEcon Festival, revived two years after COVID-19, will serve as a momentum for the students at the Business School and the Department of Economics to continue strengthening their bonds.