AIER Summer Fellowship Starts
Our 2016 Summer Fellowship class, in front of AIER’s offices.
Today marks the beginning of the seventieth Summer Fellowship Program at the American Institute for Economic Research. Started in 1946, the program has evolved through the years. It started as a remediation course for veterans preparing them for entrance into colleges after World War II. It was a bridge program for students from other fields entering economics. And it was a supplement to the academic curriculum for students pursuing a Ph.D. in economics.
Recently the scope of the Summer Fellowship has grown to reflect the current trend in economic education, which places emphasis on the practical application of the material learned in the academic classroom. Today AIER provides students with first-hand exposure to applied economic research and the ability to apply theory to real world economic questions.
The value of AIER’s practical approach is emphasized by our Summer Fellowship’s selection as one of the Top 10 Fellowships of 2015 by ProFellow, an independent, go-to source for information on professional and academic fellowships. Because of this designation, we receive many applications from very strong candidates from top colleges and universities.
This year, we have a group of 10 students coming from University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Columbia University, the University of Miami (Ohio), New College of Florida, Pomona College, Boston University, Hollins University, and the University of Alaska. One student is a Ph.D. candidate, three students are pursuing or just finished their Master’s degrees, and six are undergraduates. Their fields of study vary from economics to political science, applied math, quantitative methods, environmental science and business.
The diversity of this group is an asset for AIER. As we develop materials for our upcoming Economic Wellness program, we are looking to use an interdisciplinary approach to research and delivery of the material.
Fellows will attend the Summer Speaker Series, which is an educational component of the Fellowship. This year our own researchers will be speaking on topics such as jobs, Social Security, inflation, among others. We will follow each public lecture with an exclusive seminar, which will provide students with an opportunity to dig deeper into the research behind the work presented in the public event.
Summer Fellows will also take part in cultural activities. The group will tour Tanglewood, visit the Norman Rockwell Museum, and attend a performance of Shakespeare and Company, among other events.
We are looking forward to fun and productive summer!
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