2023 Student Awards

"My time in the UNO Economics Graduate program was instrumental in my development. My education has instilled the analytic lens to view the world both professionally and personally. All the professors invested time in the students, challenging us to find real-world applications for classroom education."

"I enjoyed studying economics because I believe it has helped me better understand the big picture of a circumstance or event that I need to analyze. Because economics ties together so many different areas of business, my economics classes helped me pair my other strengths in accounting and finance to find the best possible solutions and make informed decisions. I particularly found business analytics within the economics realm to be the most fascinating and impactful, as it was rewarding to find trends in datasets, to gain programming language experience, and to use statistics to dissect the outcomes of the datasets."

"I love that economics can be applied to almost any field. Studying economics at UNO allowed me to develop a framework for analyzing and comprehending the world around me, regardless of where I end up. I know the skills I've gained from my economics degree will be invaluable, not just to my career, but also to my personal life."

"When Adam Smith wrote about the division of labor in his famous book, The Wealth of Nations, he based his theories on the strengths of individual laborers. Those who were best at one craft could trade for goods better crafted by a neighbor. etc. Smith's strengths-based philosophy relied on individual contributions to the greater good, which eventually bore booming economies. Though I love studying economics for a wide variety of reasons, like understanding macro-economic trends and being better positioned to make tough analytical decisions, I especially love the underlying emphasis on quantifying human behavior. No matter the problem, using the tools of economics, we are solving it for people; and I am very, very passionate about people."

"Overall, my love for economics stem from its ability to provide analytical tools, theoretical frameworks, and practical insights that allow individuals to better understand the complexities of the world and contribute to its improvement."

"There are many intricate aspects to economics that make it difficult to understand but also very straight forward. I love economics because it is connected to everything in the business world, as well as everything outside of business. When one studies economics, they do not just learn about our economy, they learn about how each aspect of decision-making, whether it is small scale or large scale, affects everything around us. Economics itself can be tough to grasp, but learning about it is a challenge that I enjoy taking on here at UNO."