{"id":16681,"date":"2021-07-01T13:56:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T13:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=16681"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:39:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:39:57","slug":"mac-student-selected-for-inaugural-economics-program-at-u-of-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2021\/07\/mac-student-selected-for-inaugural-economics-program-at-u-of-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Mac student selected for inaugural economics program at U of Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saint Paul, Minn.<\/b> \u2014 When economics professors Sarah West and Amy Damon both sent Sariya Stowers \u201923 emails on the same day encouraging her to apply for the first ever Expanding Diversity in Economics<\/a> (EDE) Summer Institute at the University of Chicago, the rising junior perked up. The new program\u2019s goal, which is right there in the name, was a message that really resonated with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s something I talk about all the time, even with my family and friends,\u201d she said. \u201cEconomics is one of those things that’s the backbone of every country, but a lot of times the experts are not necessarily the most diverse, even though the economy is affecting so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking her mentors\u2019 not-so-subtle hints, Stowers submitted her application.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had already set in my mind that if I didn\u2019t get it, I would be fine,\u201d she said. \u201cBut in the back of my head, I was really hoping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, Stowers learned she had been selected from a pool of more than 200 applicants, and on July 18, the economics and political science major from Ponder, Texas will join 44 other students from 31 different institutions as part of the EDE\u2019s inaugural cohort. She and her fellow participants will receive a stipend for the three-week virtual session, which is being hosted by the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI), as well as a certification of completion from the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalent is dispersed widely and this program will help to bring a wider set of people into economics,\u201d Michael Greenstone, who is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and director of BFI, said in a press release. \u201cWe expect that the result will be a deeper understanding of the world that ultimately allows economics to more effectively influence the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stowers said she\u2019s really looking forward to getting to know the other students, who all share her love for economics, as well as learn from some of the leading minds<\/a> in the field. Upon completion, she and the others will become part of an ongoing EDE mentoring network, and select participants will be eligible to participate in research projects and assistantships during the academic year. To Stowers, that all sounds too good to be true.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the field of economics, it is so interesting to see how we can make these models and represent our world and then use those same models to solve issues with our world,\u201d she said. \u201cI just think it\u2019s like mathematical magic or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

About the Expanding Diversity in Economics Summer Institute\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

The Expanding Diversity in Economics<\/a> (EDE) Summer Institute at the University of Chicago\u2019s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI) was designed to identify and support talented undergraduate students from a broad range of backgrounds interested in the study of economics. BFI\u2019s goal is to diversify the pool of students majoring in economics, who may go on to a graduate program of study or a career drawing on this important skill set.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stowers was selected from a pool of more than 200 applicants<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16685,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-newswire","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16681"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31071,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16681\/revisions\/31071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}