Alumni Newsletter September 2013
What's New in the Undergraduate Program?
Western adopted a new modular approach to undergraduate degrees in 2008, allowing students to graduate with degrees that combine ‘modules’ from multiple disciplines. In addition to our traditional Honors Specialization in Economics, we recently introduced two new and rapidly expanding modules: Honors Specializations in Global Economics and in Economics, Politics and Philosophy.
Students can also earn an Honors degree by completing a major module from two different departments. With this in mind, we have designed distinct Majors in Economics and in Financial Economics, with many top students combining these with Majors in Statistics and Actuarial Science.
Another exciting new program, joint between Economics and Ivey, culminates in an Honors BA in Economics and an HBA from Ivey. This five-year dual-degree program enrolls a handful of select students each year, with many of them continuing on to post-graduate studies.
We also offer an Economics Minor and what is now called a Specialization in Economics for those students not interested in Honors-level courses. For students majoring in Science and Engineering who want to learn some basic economics but do not have the time to take a full-blown major or minor, we have also introduced a one-semester accelerated Principles course targeted to their skills and needs.
Enrollment in our Principles classes currently numbers 1300-1400 each term. One of the more exciting innovations in Macro Principles over the past few years has been Jeannie Gillmore’s unique contest requiring teams of students to develop a set of lyrics for the music from Rossini’s William Tell Overture centered on the economic concepts learned in the course. Each team submits a video in which their lyrics are sung to Rossini’s score, performed and filmed by the team members.
Last winter, over 200 teams entered the contest hoping to win one of the iPad prizes generously donated by Pearson Academic. The entire contest culminates in a ‘video playoff’ among the top five entries and is judged by a panel of local experts. Check out some of the recent top contenders on YouTube.
The Department works hard to help our graduates turn theory into practice. Considerable time and resources have been devoted to a number of new career placement efforts. Most notably, the Department held an Economics Careers Night open to all undergraduates. Directors of the PhD and new Master in Financial Economics (MFE) programs spoke about those programs, but the highlight of the night was provided by you! Five Western Economics Alumni generously volunteered their time to speak about their post-graduation paths and how they arrived in their present careers.
Given the overwhelming success of Economic Careers Night, we plan to make it an annual event going forward. With so many successful alumni out there, it should not be hard to repeat. Please contact us if you would be interested in sharing your career experiences with the leaders of tomorrow.
We end our update by congratulating our most recent graduates (and newest alumni), with special commendation to all of our award winners.
Al Slivinski
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Return to the Economics Alumni Newsletter on the web.
