My work

I do research for one of the Boston Fed's economists, who directs the Consumer Payments Research Center. My work ranges from writing survey questions and analyzing survey data on consumer financial behavior to writing policy briefs on topics like consumer financial literacy.

Kenyon connection to the job

Will Melick of the economics faculty worked with my current boss at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. After the last round of interviews, he helped convince my boss to hire me.

Key Kenyon experiences

Taking "Quest for Justice" with Fred Baumann was the point when I began to see why Kenyon was a great place. He was amazing. He put things at just the right level to challenge us. Whenever I've tried to teach anything, I've always tried to emulate him.

My interest in economic development owes a lot to my junior honors seminar with Will Melick and Galina An. It was rigorous and made us think on our feet. It also gave us an opportunity to think about why what we were doing was important. It gave me an in-depth understanding of what research was like and how to think like an economist.

Skills learned at Kenyon that have helped on the job

On the whole, I'd say math. I use results from my statistics courses every day. In fact, I keep all of my Kenyon books in a cabinet above my desk. The most important thing, though, has to do with something that my boss noticed about me. He said that I was "old fashioned" in that I was curious about things. At Kenyon, there's a stress on engaging ideas above almost anything else. Kenyon really gave me an edge in that it allowed me to think about the essentials. Kenyon has an inherent rigor, and that rigor, combined with intellectual flexibility, makes it "old fashioned."

Job high point

This year we have been able to present our results to the bank's leadership, including the bank president, who sits on the Federal Open Market Committee, which is a pretty big deal to an economist. It was really something to see concepts that you had worked through, and in some cases terminology that you had developed, presented to someone as smart and important as that.

Outside of my job

I love to visit Kenyon friends in other cities—New York, Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Kunming (China). I've also been playing ice hockey in MIT's intramural program, a nice extension of Kenyon's hockey (club) team, which I captained when I was a senior.