May
30
2013 Economics Commencement Highlights
May 30, 2013 | Leave a Comment
On the afternoon of May 19, 2013, the Brandeis Department of Economics was proud to confer one hundred and twenty-nine bachelor’s degrees.
Eight students were awarded departmental honors:
Mengshan Cui – High Honors
Jay Dev – Honors
Neelanjana Gupta – Honors
Woo Sang Jo – Honors
Joshua Hoffman-Senn – Honors
Yosef Schaffel – Highest Honors
Doug Schwartz – Honors
Samuel Stemper – High
Three students were given department prizes:
The Carol Anne Steinfeld Memorial Prize in Economics was awarded to Mengshan Cui for being an outstanding senior in Economics who plans to attend graduate school.
The Morris and Anna Feldberg Prize in Economics was awarded to Kaiyan Chen for being an outstanding student concentrating in Economics and planning on graduate studies in the field
The Sidney S. Cohen Award in Economics was given to Zhuoxin Miao for outstanding work in the field of Economics.
Associate Professor Michael Coiner gave the Economics Department commencement address.
In his speech to the graduates, Professor Coiner took a look back at some of the major economic events and issues of the last four years (e.g., the Great Recession, health care reform, crisis in the European Union, immigration reform). The address also made some forecasts about the future (e.g., renewed economic growth, a hotter world) but stressed that uncertainty about how the political process will play out makes it hard to predict other trends, such as the future of U.S. entitlement programs. It was suggested that history moves at a deceptively rapid pace, and that changes will occur during the lifetimes of the graduates that are currently unimaginable.
Professor Coiner closed by urging the class of 2013 to remember to enjoy life as they go about making the world a better place.
Friends and family celebrated the graduates accomplishments at a reception that followed the mini-commencement ceremony.
