Bryant Students Explore Career Options at AIER

Photo: Andrew Krom (middle) holds the AIER report which he helped to write when interning here. Pictured L to R: Angelo Cotoni, Soala Ekine, Dennis Frank, Andrew Krom, and Peter Davies.

As part of our mission, the American Institute for Economic Research engages in multiple outreach activities promoting the love of economics, career readiness skills, and an experiential approach to learning. We are building the cadre of alumni of our education programs, who keep in touch with the Institute over time.

Andrew Krom participated in the academic year internship program in the spring of 2014 and went on to Bryant University after graduating from Mt. Everett High School in Sheffield, Massachusetts. On February 5, he organized a group of students from the Bryant University Economic Students Association to visit AIER for a career day.

The day started with students introducing themselves and sharing their career aspirations. I dazzled them with the history of AIER; discussed our research products, and showed them our online tools, such as the Cost of Living Calculator, our Everyday Price Index, and our College Destinations Index. Then we showcased the career trajectories of two of our researchers, Jia Liu and Max Gulker. Students discovered that training in economics can lead to many career options, including consulting, litigation, management, research and others.

The second segment of the presentations was devoted to showcasing our recent research projects. Luke Delorme discussed the state of the Social Security Fund. He engaged students in a discussion of ways to ensure that the fund does not run out by 2020. He challenged their answers by providing an opposing point of view on each suggestion. This showed that there are many competing options; that each option has costs and benefits; and that some are harder to implement than others. Overall, I think, students learned about the essence of the Social Security program and will appreciate the complexity of the debate surrounding it.

Jia Liu surveyed the students about their knowledge of prevailing prices in order to show how their beliefs about inflation differ from the actual inflation rate. She explained the Inflation Scorecard table in the most recent Business Conditions Monthly report. Students were tested in their understanding of the directions of price movements in each scorecard category (supply, demand, money, banking, credit, etc.).

Students had an opportunity to ask questions about AIER, about careers in economics and finance, and about the interesting history of the AIER facilities. They had lunch and played a little ping-pong with the staff.

This was a good example of how the educational activities at AIER promote engagement with the community, and help students grow professionally.