ISU Economics students participate in undergraduate conference in NYC

Katrina Babb, Economics Senior Instructor, and Debra Israel, Associate Professor of Economics, travelled in February 2022 with 11 ISU students to the undergraduate student conference on Issues in Political Economy in New York City. One of the students, William Drappo, presented his paper on “How Neoclassical Economic Theory Fails to Explain the Industrial Food System,” mentored by Economics professor Don Richards, who also attended the conference. 

Conference research presentation topics included immigration, discrimination, the impact of sexual assault on educational attainment, the importance of public libraries, walkability of communities, and water conservation, to name a few! In addition to the presentations, networking among students and faculty was encouraged with a reception held on Friday evening. This was a good chance to meet Economics students from several colleges and universities. As an additional networking opportunity, we were able to meet with an ISU alumni, Ryan Drzewiecki, currently working in NYC, for lunch on Friday.

In addition to the conference, students were able to visit the 9/11 Memorial, see the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry, see Central Park and Times Square, among other sights. While we were there we saw the skyscrapers lit up with yellow and blue – the colors of the Ukrainian flag in support of Ukraine. We would like to thank the generous support of the ISU College of Arts and Sciences and an ISU course-related domestic travel grant from the ISU Center for Community Engagement for making this experience possible. For more information about the conference see: https://blogs.elon.edu/ipe/conference/about/