Friday, Feb. 1, marked the fourth year of festivities for Western Illinois University’s annual Economics day. The event started in 2006, continued in 2011, 2012 and returned this year. The event has featured nearly two dozen different speakers, mostly alumni, in the past.
“Econ Day was originally created by the Economics Student Association(ESA) back in 2006 as a way to promote the field of economics,” said assistant professor of economics Jessica Harriger. “All too often, people wonder ‘What is economics?’ Or, ‘What can you do with that degree?' Econ Day is designed to celebrate the field by featuring speakers, alumni and faculty-student interactions.”
This year’s event started with a film clip and discussion. The clip was from “Freakonomics” and presented the idea of paying students to excel. There were a number of students who took part in the discussion from not only Western, but also Carl Sandburg College and seniors from Macomb High School.
The second event — titled “Economics in the News” — featured a discussion of economic issues that have made headlines recently, such as the importance of the unemployment rate, the economy’s effect on the election and how the debt ceiling works.
Assistant professor of political science Greg Baldi took the discussion one step further by breaking down what a trillion dollar coin was. He explained how the government could use the coin to circumvent budgets and the Federal Reserve, and also the specific law that allows the treasury to mint a platinum coin and assign any value to it.
The final event, at 2 p.m., featured a keynote speech by Western alumna Linsey Ackerman. She graduated in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a Master of Economics in 2002. Since leaving Western, she has worked for Caterpillar Finance in Nashville, Tenn.
“You can do anything, because the information you learn in economics plays a part in any job you can do,” Ackerman said. “Best thing about economics here at Western is the experience in general. I liked that it was small. I knew the professors.”
Ackerman provided those in attendance with her tips on moving from college life to the working world — prove yourself and people will notice early on. If you don’t know, ask questions. It at least shows you are paying attention. Be organized. People will take note if your workspace is a mess. Make good impressions, even if they don’t affect you now. It all circles back.
The event was sponsored by the Western Department of Economics and Decision Sciences and the Western Visiting Lectures Series and presented by the Economic Students Association (ESA).
Membership to the ESA is open to students of all backgrounds and majors. Anyone looking to learn more about the ESA can email the group at ESA@wiu.edu.
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