“TZX Corp will buy Tyler’s store in a cash for stock transaction. Consider external economic factors and anti-trust regulations.”

Cases like these at the DECA International Career Development Conference pushed me beyond my comfort zone, and helped me uncover my love for business strategy. I believe that studying Economics with Business Management at Columbia is the next step in developing my interests towards a career that serves society.

Since my freshman year, I’ve nurtured a hobby for refurbishing and selling smartphones. While my interest started off technical, I slowly realized I was more excited by profitability ratios, calculating costs, and making sales than I was by repairing hardware. In addition, I participated in the National Economics Challenge, applying principles of macro and microeconomics to solve real-life scenarios. My team placed first in the Wild Card competition and advanced to nationals, placing 12th in the U.S. I’ve taken the initiative to self-study Coursera courses in corporate finance, financial accounting, and marketing; I’m currently taking operations management.

Economics can help us better understand the world we live in, providing a lens through which we can visualize solutions to seemingly insurmountable issues. I aim to become an entrepreneur who uses economics to combat social problems. Development and welfare economics are two areas that interest me: I’m fascinated by how governments promote economic development through health, education, and workplace conditions and how welfare economics can quantify benefits to society using social welfare functions. Through Economics and Business Management at Columbia, I’ll be better equipped to analyze social issues and to alleviate social problems.

Einstein mused that given an hour to save the world, he would spend 55 minutes studying the problem. As a future economist, I will use the discipline of economics to develop a better grasp of problems before attempting to create solutions.