Spring 2017 Newsletter

Hello fellow economics students and faculty! Welcome to the Economics Department’s spring 2017 newsletter. This newsletter serves to inform everyone of upcoming events, activities and opportunities brought to you by the Economics Department. This final newsletter of the school year is filled with recognition of students with notable achievements and exciting news for the upcoming school year!

If you have questions regarding courses, forms, internships or anything else, please visit us at the advising office in Engineering 2, room 401! We have drop-in advising hours on weekdays between 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and 1 p.m-3 p.m.

- Your Spring 2017 Economics Peer Advisors

Letter from the chair
Awards
Spring spotlight -- student competition
Field study
Graduation related news
Peer Advisors:  upcoming journeys
T-shirts--new design is here
Summer courses

A Letter From the Chair Kenneth Kletzer

This has been another eventful year for the UC Santa Cruz Economics Department. We are looking forward to the department graduation celebration for our seniors and graduate students.  About 400 students will receive their bachelors’ degrees with majors in economics, business management economics, and global economics, as well as with combined majors in economics and mathematics, environmental studies and economics and Latin American and Latino and global economics.  Our graduates go on to great careers, positions of influence, and make significant contributions to California and the world. Many of you will use the economics tools learned at UCSC in your careers, and all of you will take advantage of the insights of economics as citizens. UCSC economics students reflect the diversity of California and include students from around the world. Our campus takes great pride in providing an environment for students to explore the intellectual universe, gain skills and knowledge for their personal goals, and nurture the curiosity and open mindedness of youth.

Not only is the undergraduate program at UCSC thriving, but our professional masters in applied economics and finance is growing. Applications rose sharply for 2017-18, and many of our undergraduate students are joining the program. The masters program provides a great opportunity to continue studying economics at UCSC with very talented classmates from around the world. Again this year, students completing their doctoral degrees have made significant contributions to research, expanding society’s knowledge, and are on their way to great teaching, research, and industry careers.

Once again this year, we recruited new faculty from the ranks of fresh Ph.D.’s in economics. Two new assistant professors will be joining our department this coming fall.  Jessie Li is an econometrician with wide-ranging interests in applied econometrics problems who is completing her Ph.D. at Stanford University. Jessie will be teaching undergraduate courses in econometrics and in our Ph.D. program. Alonso Villacorta is a macroeconomist with strong interests in the role of financial markets in macroeconomics. Alonso is also receiving his Ph.D. from Stanford and will teach macroeconomics in both the undergraduate and Ph.D. programs.

Among our many events, we held a reception for economics alumni over alumni weekend on Saturday, April 29. After providing an overview of the department and our programs, Professor Natalia Lazzati presented part of her research on hot-spot policing demonstrating how economics informs public policy analysis and approaches to a broad range of social issues. I especially want to thank the department’s peer advisors for coming to the alumni event, meeting and talking with our economics alums. All of our alumni visitors really enjoy meeting current students, and our peer advisors did a great job of presenting the department and representing UCSC.

Spring 2017 Student Awards

And the award goes to ...

We are thrilled to announce that several hard-working and dedicated economics students at the graduate and undergraduate levels have received awards this quarter in recognition of their teaching assistant excellence, academic achievement and/or financial need and academic merit. These awards are made possible by the generosity of many donors and sponsors and bring effusive joy to the recipients! We are grateful for their philanthropy and support of economics at UC Santa Cruz! (Additional information about donating can be found here.

Graduate Student Awards

Milam-McGinty-Kaun Award for Teaching Excellence
-Akatsuki Sukeda

Outstanding Campus-wide TA Award
-Jijian Fan

Spring 2016 - Winter 2017 TA Awards
There are five recipients for teaching assistant excellence from spring 2016 - winter 2017:
-Fernando Chertman
-DJ Jeong
-Alan Ledesma
-Kelsey Pilch
-Yifei Sheng

For pictures and more information on these and past award recipients, visit the Economics Graduate Programs page here.

Undergraduate Student Awards

Blanche McKenzie Scholarship in Economics

-Max Downie

California Society of CPA, Outstanding Senior Accounting Student

-Tam Nguyen

DSP Scholarship Key Award

-Zane Gregorian

Robert J. Shepherd Economics Accounting Path Scholarship

Pictured here are Robert and Helen Shepherd (center), with inaugural recipients of the Robert J. Shepherd Economics Accounting Path Scholarship award, Gina Tu (left) and Andy Dinh (right).

Spring Spotlight -- Student Competition

Picture of Jiamin Liu (left) and Zhicheng Zhang (right)

UCSC Economics Undergraduate Team wins Best Strategy Invitational Grand Championship competition.

The Best-Strategy Invitational (BSI) is a global competition among high-performing Business Strategy Game (BSG) companies from around the world. Hosted and administered by the BSG author team, the BSI is held over a two-week period each May, August, and December. Any student-team finishing in 1st place in the BSG simulation exercise conducted at their school, college, or university will receive an invitation to participate in the BSI. Proceeds from the $US 5.00 registration fee paid by each participant are donated to The United Nations Children's Fund – UNICEF.

A total of 1389 teams from around the world were invited to compete in the May 2017 BSI, and 116 teams accepted the invitation. They were separated into 10 different simulation industries, each competing for a BSI Grand Championship.  The UCSC team members, Yi-Ching Chen, Jiamin Liu, Weifeng Qiu, and Zhicheng Zhang,  participated in the fall 2016 ECON 136: Business Strategy class instructed by Lecturer Robert Baden: Yi-Ching Chen, Jiamin Liu, Weifeng Qiu, and Zhicheng Zhang. Jiamin and Zhicheng went on to win the BSI Grand Championship competition for their industry, and tied for took third place overall in the world. They, and are each graduating in June with a B.A. in business management economics.

A key element of the business strategy class (ECON 136) is the BSG, an online exercise where class members are divided into teams and assigned the task of running an athletic footwear company in head-to-head competition against companies managed by other class members. Company co-managers must make decisions relating to plant operations, distribution and warehouse operations, work force compensation, online sales at the company’s web site, sales and marketing, and finance. The challenge is to craft and execute a competitive strategy that results in a respected brand image, keeps your company in contention for global market leadership, and produces good financial performance as measured by earnings per share, return on investment, stock price appreciation, and credit rating.

Thank You Field Study Sponsoring Agencies!

Field study is available every quarter for students to earn academic credit while working in the local community (Economics 193) or elsewhere (Economics 198) and earn credit for the practice: service learning (PR-S) general education requirement.  Field study provides students with a practical context in which they can integrate course material. Students work in a business setting where they are trained and supervised by a professional in their area of interest and an economics faculty member sponsors each student, providing guidance and encouraging them to blend the knowledge acquired in economics courses with the training they receive in the field placement.

From summer 2016 through spring 2017, we had 118 students total in field study internships at various companies and UC Santa Cruz departments, including:

Thank you to all the companies who support and continue to make the ecoomics field study program a success!  For more information please visit the Economics Field Study Program page or contact the field studies and M.S. job placement coordinator Hayley Mears.

Graduation Related News

Congratulations Class of 2017 Economics Graduates!

The Department graduates between 400 to 450 undergraduate students per year. Approximately 73 students will be graduating with honors or highest honors for the 2016-2017 academic year. Honors in the major is awarded to students who have completed a major program with superior or exceptional work. Honors decisions are made by the department’s Honors and Scholarship Committee. In general honors have been awarded to between 10 and 15 percent of each year’s graduating class.

Congratulations to all our graduating graduate students!  We are excited to have 30 masters students finish the applied economics and finance program and eight Ph.D. students in economics finishing with promising careers ahead of them. Those positions are listed here.

The degree-conferring commencements will be hosted by UCSC's 10 undergraduate colleges and the Graduate Division on Friday through Sunday, June 16-18. See here for a link to more information about commencement.

Graduating Peer Advisors

Congratulations to our Economics Peer Advisors who are graduating this year.  Curious about the future plans for some of them? Please continue reading!

Begum Becer - Relaxing with family and friends before beginning the M.S. in applied economics and finance program here at UC Santa Cruz.
Rachel Chen - Traveling around the country to explore and looking for a job.
Haotain Dai - While waiting to begin the M.S. in applied economics and finance program here at UC Santa Cruz, I will be participating in some academic-related preparation and practice during summer.
Tiffany Kwok - Studying for the CPA exam and will begin working at Ernst & Young in San Jose in January 2018.
Gustavo Ruelas - Studying for the CPA exam while concurrently working at an accounting firm in Los Angeles.
Sarah Schuyler - Studying for the CPA exam before beginning my job at Moss Adams.
Yi Xu - I will be working as a volunteer with NGOs in Cambodia during summer.

Interested in economics peer advising? 
Have you ever met with an economics peer advisor?  Have you benefitted from meeting with an economics peer advisor and would you like to pay it forward by helping your fellow classmates?  If your answer is yes, this is great news because we are looking for peer advisors for 2017-2018!  Peer advising is a great way to enhance your interpersonal skills and gain extra curricular experience in an office environment that looks fabulous on your resume.  Please stop by the Economics Department to discuss this opportunity and ask questions of current peer advisors and/or Lisa Morgan.

Economics T-Shirts

Our new department t-shirts have arrived and are available for purchase. ($10 each) Please come get yours while supplies last.

Summer Economics Courses

Enrolling in summer courses gives you an opportunity to take much smaller classes than in the academic year, it helps you get prerequisities and major requirements out of the way, and gives you a great excuse to spend the summer in the woods!  Enrollment began May 1st at summer.ucsc.edu

Session 1 (June 26-July 28)
Econ 1 Introduction to Microeconomics {PE-H/IS}
Econ 10A Economics of Accounting I (online)
Econ 100A Intermediate Microeconomics
Econ 101 Managerial Economics
Econ 113 Introduction to Econometrics {SR/Q}
Econ 120 Economic Development {E}
Econ 125 Economic History of the U.S.
Econ 133 Security Markets & Financial Institutions (online)
Econ 197-01 Economic Rhetoric {DC}

Session 2 (July 31-Sept 1)
Econ 2 Introduction to Macroeconomics {PE-H,IS}
Econ 10B Economics of Accounting II (online)
Econ 11B Math Methods for Economists II {MF/IN/Q}
Econ 100B Intermediate Macroeconomics
Econ 135 Corporate Finance
Econ 136 Business Strategy
Econ 197-02 Economic Rhetoric {DC}

Stay Connected

Undergraduate students, please join our LinkedIn Group:  UC Economics

Master's students, please join our LinkedIn Group:  UCSC M.S. in Applied Economics and Finance

Doctorate studens, please join our LinkedIn Group:  UCSC Economics Ph.D. Program

Alumni and students, please join the Career Advice Network (CAN) for free career advice.

Visit our Economics Department Calendar for upcoming events.