Named for the founder of our club and AEC’s first president, the Atlanta Economics Club presents the Joseph K. Heyman scholarship to an outstanding student in economics. This scholarship is open to any undergraduate or graduate student enrolled at a metropolitan Atlanta college or university. The application deadline for the 2023-2024 Scholarship is March 31, 2024.
2022 — 2023 Recipient
Savannah Ford is an Economics and Management double major at the University of West Georgia with a 3.94 GPA. She is currently a senior and plans to graduate in December 2023. Savannah is active in the university community, serving as a Richards of College of Business Ambassador and the Vice President of the Economics Club. She has also worked as a supplemental instructor for both accounting and statistics. This spring she is working as an intern at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. After graduation she plans to get a Master’s degree, so she can teach economics.
2021 — 2022 Recipients
Benjamin is a junior working on his BS in Economics degree at Georgia Tech, where he is president of the Georgia Tech Economics Club. He also serves as a Senior Analyst on the Georgia Tech Student Foundation Investments Committee. Last summer Benjamin worked as a Business Management Intern at NEXTERA ENERGY in Juno Beach, Florida. After completing his Bachelor’s degree he plans to pursue a Master’s degree in either Economics or Analytics. He is interested in a career related to education reform.
Jancy is a third year Ph.D. in Economics student at Georgia Tech. Her research fields are environmental, behavioral, and experimental economics. Prior to starting her graduate work, Jancy worked in a financial-tech startup applying behavioral theories on consumer choices. That work led her to earn an M.S. in Economics and Statistics at Georgia Tech and then to the Ph.D. program. Jancy has an active research agenda with several working papers, and she also works as a research assistant at two psychology research labs at Georgia Tech. This summer, Jancy received a fellowship to attend the prestigious UC Berkeley/Sloan Environmental and Energy Economics (EEE) summer school. After completing her Ph.D., Jancy hopes to combine her enthusiasm for environmental issues and human decisions, her passion for teaching and coaching students, and her concerns for the local and global community by pursuing a career as a faculty member.
2020 — 2021 Recipients
Brianna is currently a student in the BA/MA dual degree program at Georgia State University and will earn both degrees in four years. She completed her undergraduate degree in December 2020 and will earn her master’s degree in May 2021. Brianna has worked as a research assistant in the Department of Economics, a legislative aide at the Georgia Capital, and a research intern at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. After she graduates in May, Brianna will begin a job as a Research Assistant at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in the Community Development and Policy Studies Department. Ultimately, after gaining some work experience, Brianna plans to pursue a Ph.D in either economics or urban studies.
Carla is a Ph.D. candidate at Emory University. Her research interests include Macroeconomics, Labor Economics, Retirement and Pensions, and Latin American Studies. Carla has an active research agenda and has already co-authored a book that analyses the Peruvian labor market, pension system, and demography. Prior to starting her program at Emory, Carla worked as an economic assistant at the Congress of the Republic of Peru and a research assistant at the Universidad del Pacifico Research Center. She currently works as a Research Assistant at the Americas Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Carla plans to pursue an academic career in a university or research institution.
2019 — 2020 Recipients
Sarah is a junior at Georgia Tech majoring in economics and minoring in Spanish. She has a 4.0 GPA and is ranked top in her class at Georgia Tech. She currently co-oping with the Costing and Energy Analysis Group at Southern Company. After graduating from Tech, she plans to attend graduate school and pursue a career in business economics and forecasting.
Kaylyn is a third year Ph.D. student at Emory University and received her B.S. in Economics and Mathematical Finance from Seton Hall University. Prior to going to graduate school, Kaylyn worked as a bank examiner for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. After completing her Ph.D., Kaylyn plans a career as a health economics researcher at a research institution or university.
2018 — 2019 Recipients
Fernanda Arcaraz received a B.S. in Economics and International Affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology in May 2018 (Summa Cum Laude). She is currently pursuing a M.S. in Economics at Georgia Tech (expected graduation May 2019). During her undergraduate career, Fernanda was a student ambassador for the Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, tutored for the Georgia Tech Athletic Association and for students with special needs, and conducted econometric research to analyze factors affecting corruption in developing countries. Fernanda worked at PLI Consulting as an International Business Development and Sales intern. She also began in undergrad and continues in graduate school to work for the Georgia Tech Office of Hispanic Initiatives as a student assistant and at NCR Corporation as a Global Financial Sales intern. Fernanda has accepted a full-time position with NCR beginning in July 2019 where she will work as a Sales Operations Analyst conducting market research and revenue analytics for NCR in global markets.
Celine is an undergraduate student at Georgia Tech pursuing a B.S. in Economics with two minors in International Affairs and City Planning. She is ranked second in her class, and is currently studying International Economics and Sociology at Sciences Po in Paris on an exchange program this academic year. She has worked on Sociology research with Dr. Allen Hyde at Georgia Tech, interned at the Georgia Department of Economic Development, and most recently, interned at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta during the summer of 2018. She hopes to participate in human rights outreach directly after graduation. Her long term goal is to work specifically with economic development and disaster relief in lower income communities throughout the world.
2017 — 2018 Recipients
Roberto is a Georgia State University student pursuing a BBA in Business Economics. He has an overall GPA of 3.86, and he is currently working as a Financial Associate with Peachtree Financial Group and College Planning. He has also worked as a research assistant for Dr. Jonathan Smith at GSU. After graduating from GSU in May 2018, he plans to work for an economic development organization and obtain his Certified Business Economist certification from National Association for Business Economics (NABE). He eventually hopes to pursue a graduate degree in economics.
Asmaa Malik is a student at Georgia State University pursuing a Masters in Economics. She is expected to complete her MA in Fall 2019. Asmaa works as a Public Finance Fellow at Georgia State University’s Center for State and Local Finance. She is very interested in urban economics, and she aspires to become a site-selection consultant in the food-service or restaurant industry. Asmaa also has her own food blog where she combines her interest in food with economics by examining statistical data from readers. Her long run goal is to become a college professor.
Maryam received her undergraduate degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Wisconsin – Superior in August 2017 (Magna Cum Laude) and is currently pursuing a Masters in Economics from Georgia State University (expected graduation May 2019). As an undergraduate, Maryam was very active in research. She presented a paper at the Wisconsin Economic Association Conference, and another paper she wrote won the Best Undergraduate Research Paper in Economics at the University of Wisconsin Superior in 2016. Maryam also worked as an intern at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Abuja, Nigeria in the summer of 2016. After completing her master’s degree, Maryam plans to pursue a PhD in Economics.
2016–2017 Recipients
Augustine Denteh was a fourth year Ph.D. Economics student in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University (GSU). He was interested in applied microeconomics with emphasis on health, labor, and applied econometrics. His objective is to pursue a teaching and research career in Economics and will seek a tenure track professor position upon graduating from GSU.
Augustine’s dissertation focuses on the identification and estimation of the treatment effect of a misreported binary treatment indicator on health-related outcomes such as obesity in survey data. Misreporting is pervasive in survey data and has important consequences for the estimation of treatment effects. He propose a methodology that will be applied to examine the impacts of SNAP (also known as the Food Stamp Program) on several health-related outcomes: adult obesity, food insecurity, and household food purchases. It is noteworthy that he have recently obtained a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding through the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) to investigate the nature and consequences of misreporting when examining the
impacts of SNAP.
As part of his professional development, Augustine worked for one year at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta through a Federal Reserve Bank fellowship, which was awarded through the Department of Economics at GSU. He worked with Dr. Julie Hotchkiss, providing research support ranging from reading and summarizing technical economics papers to performing statistical analyses using SAS and Stata. He has taught undergraduate econometrics classes in preparation for a tenure track professor position. He is also very active in attending professional conferences.
Leonardo Rodriguez was a senior pursuing his Bachelors of Science in Economics and Masters of Arts in Economics in a 4 plus 1 program at Georgia State University. He secured four internships in local, state and federal government in areas such as community development and economic development, which equipped him with a depth of knowledge and skill-set in community development, regression analysis, data management and more. His academic aspirations are eventually to pursue a PhD in economics so that he can conduct research in areas such as immigration and community development.
With executive leadership roles in organizations such as AIESEC, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and Student Government Association, Leonardo implemented service events, constituent days and even legislation for the community of Georgia State University. As an economist or policymaker, he plans to advocate and research for the greater good of our communities. Whether it is working class rights or evaluating monetary policies, Leonardo aspires to be an agent of change for the community.
2015–2016 Recipients
Kendrick is a senior Economics and Quantitive Analysis major at Kennesaw State University. She has a 3.73 GPA and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics after she graduates in May. Kendrick has been active in research and has done poster presentations of her research on the time series analysis and forecast of U.S. debt at Kennesaw State’s SAS Day and the 2015 SAS Analytics Conference. In addition to her academic work, she has worked as an intern at Henssler Financial and Southern Company.
Anne is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Economics at Emory University. She is working on her dissertation which incorporates family structure and decision-making into macroeconomic models. After graduating, Anne hopes to find a job as a tenure track professor. She has served as the teaching assistant for the Managerial Economics class for the Executive MBA program for the past three years and has won the Economics Department’s Teaching Excellence Award. She is also working as a Graduate Research Assistant in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
2014–2015 Recipient
This year’s winner is Jessica Mitchell, pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Economics. As a current junior of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Ms. Mitchell has woven herself into the fabric of university life as a co-captain of the Georgia State University’s Pantherette Dance Team and Georgia State University’s BCM (Baptist Christian Ministries). As a student in the Georgia State University Honors College, Jessica Mitchell currently holds a 3.62 GPA. Jessica chose the discipline of economics to study to implement financial change within lower class communities and begin programs to increase adolescent graduation rates as well as financial literacy amongst recently incarcerated juveniles.
“The AEC scholarship has personally helped me in more ways than one. Not only did it fund me to go on my last study abroad experience of college to South Africa to study Economic Development, but it also gave me access to wonderful mentors. AEC is more than a club of successful economists, it’s a place where I began to really define what an economist is and what I want my area of focus to be in the long run. Not to mention, through this club and because of the scholarship, I not only walked away with a funding to go abroad, but I recieved the best advice from the brightest economists in Metro Atlanta, who I now consider to be wonderful friends. And through our ongoing relationship, other opportunities have opened up for me that I know would never happened had it not been for AEC.”
~Jessica Mitchell