Spring 2018 Newsletter

Hello fellow economics students and faculty! Welcome to the Economics Department’s spring 2018 newsletter. 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 noon and 1 p.m-3 p.m.

- Your Spring 2018 Economics Peer Advisors

New faculty hires
Awards
Field study
Graduation related news
Peer Advisors:  upcoming journeys
T-shirts
UCSC Exchange Program
Summer courses
Fall 2018 courses spotlight

New Faculty Hires within the Department

The Economics Department is excited to announce two new faculty recruited by the department this past year--Brenda Samaniego de la Parra and Laura Giuliano.

Brenda Samaniego de la Parra will join us this summer as an assistant professor, specializing in applied macroeconomics with research applications in labor economics, development economics and firm dynamics. At present, Brenda is an associate with Cornerstone Research. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 2017.

Laura Giuliano will join us this summer as a professor, specializing in labor economics, education, public policy and applied economics. Laura is currently an associate professor at UC Merced. She held appointments as associate and assistant professor of economics at University of Miami, and served as senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisors to the Executive Office of the President of the United States from 2015-16. Laura earned her Ph.D. in economics from UC Berkeley in 2003.

Spring 2018 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 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 (MMK)

-DJ Jeong

Economics Outstanding TA Award for Excellence in Teaching

-Alan Ledesma

Department TA Awards for the Period of Achievement Spring 2017-Winter 2018:
-Prateek Arora
-Fernando Chertman
-Dongwan Choo
-Rongchen Liu
-David Park
-Brett Williams
-Rachel Zhang

Undergraduate Student Awards

Blanche McKenzie Scholarship

-Omar Higazy

California Society of CPA, Outstanding Accounting Student

-Melody Footlick

Certified Management Accountant (CMA) Scholarship

-Rotem Berger

-Ronald Catahimican

-Nathan Leverson

-Isaac Ornelas

Delta Sigma Pi (DSP) Scholarship Key Award

-Jett Pettus

Robert J. Shepherd Economics Accounting Path Scholarship

-Janelle Perez-Salgado (BMEC)

-William Tsai (BMEC)

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 2017 through spring 2018, 117 field study internships were completed at various companies and UC Santa Cruz departments, including:

A big thank you to all the companies who support the economics field study program and continue to make it a great success! For more information please visit the Economics Field Study Program page or contact the field studies coordinator here.

Graduation Related News

Congratulations Class of 2018 Economics Graduates!

The department graduates 425 undergraduate students per year. Approximately 60 students will be graduating with honors or highest honors for the 2017-2018 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 49 masters students finish the applied economics and finance program and 12 Ph.D. students in economics finishing with promising careers ahead of them. Those positions are listed here.

Graduating Peer Advisors

Congratulations to our Economics Peer Advisors who are graduating this year. They are excited to share their upcoming journeys with us, so please keep reading on to see where they are headed!

Ramneet Bajwa - "I will be moving back home to the Bay Area to spend some time with family and friends before looking for work. I will also be doing some part-time work at Stanford University over the summer."

Emily Buczko - "I will be staying in the Bay Area working within the nonprofit industry. After gaining a couple years of work experience, I will apply to business school and graduate with an MBA focusing on social entrepreneurship."

Chris Ho - "I will be attending the master’s program in applied economics and finance here at UC Santa Cruz in the fall."

Jacob Jameson - "I will be moving to Connecticut to teach high school math as a Teach for America corps member for two years before beginning my deferred master's degree at The Fletcher School at Tufts University (M.A. in law and diplomacy)."

Hao Jiang - "I will stay here at UC Santa Cruz as a graduate student (M.S. in applied economics and finance) for the next academic year. Before beginning my new journey, I will go back to China during summer."

Chelsea Thompson - "I will enjoy my summer back in the Bay Area, traveling and spending time with friends and family, before looking for work within the human resource field and saving up for an apartment of my own."

Christina Thompson - "I will be moving back home to the Bay Area and taking a few months off before hopefully finding a paid internship to gain some more experience before applying for a job."

Interested in economics peer advising? Have you ever met with an economics peer advisor? Have you benefited 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 2018-2019! 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.

Why Peer Advise? In the words of peer advisors …

“A wonderful learning experience and opportunity to support other economics students and the department.”-Ramneet Bajwa, UCSC B.A. in business management economics, 2018

“A great opportunity to help the Economics Department and the students within it!”-Christina Thompson, UCSC B.A. in business management economics, 2018

“Being a peer advisor is a very rewarding experience because not only do you get to help students but you also get the opportunity to learn from them.”-Saranya Chandrasekhar, UCSC B.A. candidate in business management economics, 2019

“Peer advising has allowed me to gain valuable skills, such as multi-tasking and critical thinking, that will help me in future jobs!”-Chelsea Thompson, UCSC B.A. in business management economics, 2018

Economics T-Shirts

UCSC Exchange Program - Autonomous University of Barcelona

There is a new direct exchange study abroad program between the Economics Department and the Education Abroad Program here at UC Santa Cruz. This program is open to UCSC economics undergraduate majors! The UCSC-Autonomous University of Barcelona exchange will be first offered for the spring 2019 semester with the application deadline being in early October 2018. Applications for the fall 2019 or academic year 2019-2020 will not open until late winter 2019. This is an amazing experience to be able to study in beautiful Barcelona while taking courses that are pre-approved by the department and UC Santa Cruz. The program is offered outside UCEAP so there are no EAP administrative fees, meaning more money to enjoy some tapas or delicious sangria! Additional program information will be coming soon and will be posted on the campus's study abroad website.

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 prerequisites 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

Summer Session 1 (June 25 - July 27)
Econ 1 Introduction to Microeconomics {PE-H/IS}
Econ 10A Economics of Accounting I (online)
Econ 100A-01 Intermediate Microeconomics
Econ 101 Managerial Economics
Econ 113-01 Introduction to Econometrics {SR/Q}
Econ 136 Business Strategy
Econ 197-01 Economic Rhetoric {DC}

Summer Session 2 (July 30 - August 31)
Econ 2 Introduction to Macroeconomics {PE-H,IS}
Econ 10B Economics of Accounting II (online)
Econ 100A-02 Intermediate Microeconomics
Econ 100B Intermediate Macroeconomics
Econ 113-02 Introduction to Econometrics {SR/Q}
Econ 125 Economic History of the U.S.
Econ 133 Security Markets & Financial Institutions (online)
Econ 161A Marketing
Econ 197-02 Economic Rhetoric {DC}

Fall Economics Courses Spotlight

Econ 105 Topics in Macroeconomics:
A seminar in advanced macroeconomics focusing on a selection of theoretical issues. Emphasis is on detailed modeling and analysis of macroeconomic processes. Prerequisite(s) include: course 100B or 100N, and 113. This class is a perfect for any student seeking a small-sized and deeper exploration of macroeconomics. Econ 105 will be taught by Dr. Carl Walsh, a distinguished professor of economics here at UC Santa Cruz, who is a recognized expert in monetary theory and policy, macroeconomics and central banking.

Econ 180 Labor Economics:
A study of topics in modern labor economics with an emphasis on data analysis and econometrics. Topics include labor supply, labor demand, human capital, minimum wage, employment and wage discrimination, immigration, self-employment, earned income tax credit, and unemployment insurance. Prerequisite(s) include: course 100A or 100M; and course 113. Econ 180 will be taught by new faculty hire and labor economist, Laura Giuliano.

Both of these courses have limited enrollment capacity so enroll in one for your fall quarter before it’s too late!

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