A small group of senior Honors Economics students traveled to the San Francisco City Hall and Federal Reserve Bank on April 18. The 27 students were accompanied by economics teacher Jon Felder. This second annual field trip was made possible by a GATE grant which paid for the BART and Caltrain tickets to San Francisco.
The group toured San Francisco City Hall as well as the Federal Reserve Bank, which is closed to the general public except for booked tours.
“We got to see the operations of the bank [and] what the workers do there,” Felder said. “We had a little tour, and we closed with a look at the currency exhibit, which I don’t know if it’s the best currency exhibit in the United States, [but] it’s got to be up there. It’s very impressive.”
“We got to see the operations of the bank [and] what the workers do there”
The Federal Reserve Bank has a strict limit of 30 guests per tour which, including the chaperones, only left 27 spots for students.
“We have like 400 seniors, [and] I’d love to take all of them, [but] there’s no possible way I can do that,” Felder said. “I opened it up to my classes first … If I couldn’t get 27 sign-ups from my classes, then I would open it up to probably Mr. Silton’s classes, because he’s the other AP [Government] teacher, and then to CP students.”
In both years, the 30 person guest restriction has only allowed Felder’s students to attend.
“I would absolutely recommend this trip to another student because you learn a lot about how local government is organized and how the economy is managed independently from the government,” said senior Rojean Janzad. “All economics classes should have a chance to go on the trip, [but] the logistics are difficult considering it [would be] a lot of students taking public transport and walking around the city without much supervision.”
“You learn a lot about how local government is organized and how the economy is managed independently from the government”
The students who attended also visited City Hall, where they got a tour of the building and sat in on a committee meeting open to the public on LGBTQ+ and transgender rights.
“Getting to sit in on a hearing at city hall was probably my favorite part while they were discussing trans housing rights,” Janzad said. “At the fed, we learned how money was processed, how they manage inflation and the general economy through restricting or loosening money flow and getting to see hundreds of millions in cash in one room was really interesting.”
For those who attended the field trip, the tours and experiences are a helpful way to enrich what they are being taught in economics classes and in AP Government last semester.
“Interactive learning is the best way for me to learn,” said senior Alicia Brånemark. “You got to see what you were learning in class actually in real life because sometimes the things you learn in class, they seem so far away … It’s just things you have to learn. But to see people actually working with what you’re learning is really helpful.”
