KU Economics Club Provides Multiple Opportunities for Undergraduates

The KU Economics Club, already up and running at full speed for the 2026-27 academic year, heard from Director of Undergraduate Studies Dr. Shahnaz Parsaeian on September 22 on departmental opportunities and the extent to which the students could maximize their economics educations at KU.  The club is an undergraduate student-led organization dedicated to exploring economic ideas, career opportunities, and the real-world application of economics.

The club had previously determined that its leadership team for the year would be Kristy Ingles Nguyen (co-president); Zach Dreier (co-president); Alex Godinez (treasurer); and Zara Eng (secretary).

Dr.  Parsaeian covered the availability of various departmental scholarships (including a study-abroad scholarship), undergraduate achievement awards recognizing academic excellence, and alumni networking and career counseling. She also explained the acquisition of data analysis skills through statistics and econometrics would be so crucial to the students’ journeys; and said that in many cases they would be able to demonstrate those skills through faculty mentored research and a senior honors thesis.

“I do want to encourage you to the extent that it is possible to pick a faculty mentor whose research interests align most closely with your own,” she added.

She also gave examples of the types of internships and careers KU economics graduates would most likely be landing in the future, including those associated with data and analytics; finance and banking; consulting; actuarial and risk; and government and public policy.  Dr. Parsaeian noted that the KU Career Center provides a great many resources for all undergraduates as well as any and all Economics Club members.

“I want to emphasize, as will the career center people, how important it is to create or update your LinkedIn pages to help promote yourselves,” she said.

Dr. Parsaeian also encouraged students to reach out to her with any questions, whether they are exploring research interests, thinking about course selection or degree progress, or simply have academic questions and are not sure where to start.

Beyond getting academic and career advice and bringing in guest speakers, the Economics Club also takes the occasional field trip.  Former Chair Nathan Binshtok said that the club visited the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in late April.

“We started with a tour of the KC Fed’s Money Museum, where students had a chance to watch cash deposits be sorted in real time,” Nathan said.  “Then we viewed the historic Harry S. Truman coin collection and even got to try and lift a real gold bar.”

Following the tour, the students met with Colton Tousey, a Senior Supervisor in the Economic Research Department, along with several research associates.  The Fed officials then “shared some invaluable advice about what sparked their interest in economics, what kind of research they were conducting, and what skills are important develop in college,” Nathan added.  “We then capped off the visit with a trip via the streetcar down to the Power & Light District for lunch.  As the one of the final club events of the year, this trip offered invaluable opportunities for learning and connection.”