The most gratifying aspect of being a professor at Notre Dame is working with our talented students. In this issue of our newsletter, we provide a glimpse of what makes our job special by highlighting five economics students, past and present, undergrad and graduate.
These profiles indicate the diverse backgrounds of our students, the breadth and depth of talent in our program—but, most importantly, they show the span of careers possible with an economics degree.
Betsy Bohlen’s (1990) experiences as an undergrad helped move her from a successful career in consulting to working for the Catholic Church by becoming the chief operating officer of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Melanie Wallskog’s (2016) time as an undergraduate research assistant has convinced her to pursue a Ph.D. in economics, while another graduating senior, Matt Castellini (2016), used his classwork in the new Financial Economics and Econometrics concentration to help develop a budding career in the financial sector.
Matt Ardell (2010) used his Arts and Letters background to help land his dream job at Nike as a football marketing field representative. Our final profile is of Army Maj. Carl Wojtaszek (2015), a highly decorated infantry officer, who just completed a Ph.D. in economics at Notre Dame in record time and is now a faculty member at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
These five profiles indicate what is special about Notre Dame and what makes our job so rewarding. I hope you enjoy.
Chair, Department of Economics
Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Economics