She was right. It did.
Julianna, an economics and mathematics student from Brentwood, Tennessee, recently received a full scholarship to attend the American Economic Association’s annual Summer Training Program—an intensive, two-month residential program hosted by Howard University in partnership with the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race, along with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.
Two weeks after spring semester classes end on May 10, Julianna will be in Washington, D.C., to begin four graduate-level courses at Howard and work on her research with help from members of the Howard faculty and the Federal Reserve Board. Students receive training in microeconomics, math, econometrics and research methods.
“I found out about the program from Dr. [Kat] Robinson [Ph.D, assistant dean of faculty at Eckerd], and the more I read about it, the more intriguing it became,” Julianna explains. “Especially the focus on increasing the diversity within the field. That’s an admirable goal.
“We’ll get to work on a project of our own interest. For me, it’s how different factors are affecting consumer debt in the country. I think that’s a very pressing issue right now and the cause of a lot of financial problems. The average credit card holder has about $8,000 of debt. And that’s been steadily increasing. And then there’s student loan debt. A lot of graduates don’t have the ability to get the mortgage they want. Those are just two examples.