I attended the Graduate and Professional School Fair at the Ohio Union which had representatives from all of OSU’s various graduate school programs, what these programs provided and how the graduate school admissions process worked. As an Economics and Mathematics major, I am very interested in attending graduate school for Economics, particularly getting a Ph.D. in Economics. My career goal is do research in Economics, particularly Economic Policy so that I can somehow help governments and international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund or the United Nations, make proper decisions on how to determine the best global economic policy to reduce global poverty and provide employment for people who are adversely affected by globalization.

However, since I’ve only really taken introductory level economics courses so far, I feel as if I need to learn a lot more about the various branches of economics so I can decide which aspect of economics I want to focus on, although I am currently remain very interested in international economics and global trade.

At the Graduate School Fair, I learned more about OSU’s Ph.D. program in Economics, particularly the admissions program and the type of students who are typically accepted into the program. To gain acceptance into a Ph.D. program, I learned that you need to have a strong GPA (I was very surprised to hear that!), you need a good score on the GRE Exam (yay, more standardized tests!) and you need to have some degree of research experience, along with a very exact idea on what you want to research in your field during you time as a Ph.D. student. I also learned that most Economics Ph.D. candidates are commonly Economics majors, Math majors or sometimes majors from other sciences that typically require a strong mathematical background.

I actually knew about this before I started college and since I knew I wanted to attend Graduate School, I had already made the decision to add a second math major with Economics, not only because it would help for graduate school, but also because I’ve always enjoyed doing math. Additionally, I also have begun doing research since last summer when I worked with a professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland on China’s Role in the Arctic Region as they are trying to build influence in the Arctic through heavy economic investment. Recently, I’ve become involved in research at OSU through the John Glenn College. I’m currently helping Dr. Chris Rea with a project on why deindustrialization has become such a prevalent topic of discussion in politics and media today, despite the fact that it has been a problem for decades.

The Graduate School Fair gave me more knowledge of what skills graduate school requires and I am glad that I am on the right path to pursuing a Ph.D. in Economics, even though it is only my first semester here at OSU.

I attended a panel discussion hosted by a member of the International Affairs Scholars Leadership Council, which featured members of the International Affairs Scholars program who had obtained international internships and shared their experience for those hopeful to gain international internships in the future. This discussion featured four former IA scholars: one of them had interned in Portugal for a company, another had interned in the south of France for an international organization, another had worked for the State Department in Washington, DC(this technically wasn’t technically an International internship, but involved International Affairs!) and another had interned for the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa. Through attending this panel discussion, I was able to learn about the various different internships everyone had done and more importantly, how these students were able to get their internships. While some had gotten their internships through personal connections, others had used the resources at Ohio State to get their internships through institutions and programs that were related to their majors, whether it was the Department of Political Science for the Canadian Parliament Internship or the Fisher School of Business for the Portuguese Business Internship. Through this Panel, I was able to learn about more of the countless opportunities Ohio State has to offer. These international internships also helped me realize that studying International Affairs is necessary for any career path as learning about the world helps you adjust and thrive in international settings for any profession you may choose to seek.