One of the most exciting things I have witnessed over the past few years is how our graduates from GMU not only succeed professionally in terms of placement and publication, but also in building research and educational programs at their universities.
Ed Stringham and Ben Powell built the program at SJSU and attracted students from throughout the world to study there at the MA level. This program is still training students, though Ed has moved on to Trinity College, and Ben to Suffolk University. Again they are working with colleagues to build student programs. Last spring I got to visit Suffolk and give a departmental seminar at Ben's invite, and this spring I got to visit Trinity and gave a public lecture in a program that Ed is helping put together.
This spring I have also had the good fortune to visit with other former students who are also building programs and get to meet their students and talk to them about economics and policy issues. Dan D'Amico along with senior faculty are building an amazing student environment at Loyola. Loyola, in fact, has a great track record as Walter Block has a legitimate claim to being among the most inspiring teacher for aspiring economists I have encountered in my 20+ years of teaching --- the evidence on this is clear given his track-record at Holy Cross, Central Arkansas and Loyola. Now with Dan there, the students are "on fire" with intellectual curiosity and a passion for liberty.
After my visit to Loyola, I was able to visit James Madison University to give a seminar organized by Barkley Rosser and GMU graduate Bob Subrick. Again, the room was full of intellectually curious undergraduate students as well as faculty. Bob is sponsoring independent studies with his best students, and engaging them in the research process. It is a very promising experiment.
Finally, earlier this week I visited Scott Beaulier and Mercer University. Scott's program for students is just phenomenal, and the excitement of the students for the ideas are as great as I have ever seen. These students are going to law school, applying to PhD programs, working for think-tanks. It is amazing. Scott is a super-star teacher by all accounts. When he was a graduate student, he did such an outstanding job in the classroom that he actually taught in our honors college. And it was obvious at Mercer that his students appreciate Scott's efforts.
It is just amazing to see our graduates do so well not only in publishing but also in the classroom, and in the organization of learning communities for students who care about economics and the political economy of a free and prosperous commonwealth. And, I haven't even mentioned Chris Coyne (who is doing a ton of work in the PhD program at WVU), Pete Leeson (who has fast become among the most influential faculty at GMU), and Ryan Oprea (who is helping establish an experimental program at UC Santa Cruz). Nor the extra-university engagement in professional societies and/or editorships such as Ed Stringham's rise to President of APEE and Editor of the Journal of Private Enterprise.
Nor have I mentioned older graduates of the GMU program such as Emily Chamlee Wright at Beloit (where I visited earlier this academic year to give a talk in honor of Douglass North in a lecture series that Emily organized) and Steve Horwitz at St. Lawrence (where I also had the opportunity to visit earlier this academic year to give a talk in a lecture series that Steve is organizing).
Great energy across the generations of GMU graduates. Somebody should do a comparative study of this -- publications of graduates, placements of graduates, teaching effectiveness of graduates, and institution building of graduates.
I sit here in awe of "The Boettke Boys." You have done an incredible job, Pete. I don't know of a more robust Austrian program than the one you've resuscitated at GMU. And the "boys" (now clearly men) have launched their own programs that promise to be powerhouses in Austrian economics as well. Three cheers to all of you.
I had looked forward to meeting these folks at the SAE's last fall -- it was something that I wanted to do for quite some time now -- and it was as thrilling as seeing you and Steve again after all these years. They are good, smart guys.
Once again, kudos to all of you!
Posted by: Dave Prychitko | April 02, 2009 at 07:03 AM
Dave,
As you know, graduate professors only get to have success if the undergraduate professors do their job. Scott Beaulier was as well prepared as any student ever to come to GMU because of your mentoriing of him as an undergraduate. He also had an unusual passion for teaching which you instilled in him. So now when he goes out there, he has a passion for ideas, passion for sharing those ideas, and the ability to both speak and write clearly and effectively. And he is now passing that along to his students at Mercer. You would be so proud of him Dave, he has just a buzz of excitement about economics around him with these students and they are all pursuing it as a career beyond Mercer. Amazing.
Scott is exceptional, but it is true across the board that our best students at GMU are the ones that are best prepared from undergraduate days. The students of Ebeling, the students of Block, the students of Emily Chamlee Wright, the students of Howie Baejter, etc. Within the Austrian camp, these students have hit the ground running here and never stopped. It is awesome to see, especially after they graduate and then start new centers for research and education in economics.
But I have to tell you, while I am very proud of the work we do here at GMU, I am very thankful for the work that the undergraduate teachers in economics are doing in preparing students for the rigors of graduate school while instilling in these students a passion for economic ideas and for correct thinking on issues of public policy, and for a sense that communicating economics to students, general public, and peers is a "calling" in the same sense that a Priest or Nun is "called" to their vocation.
I think this sense of "calling" explains the behavior of our best students from GMU both while in school and after. It is NOT an ideological calling, but an educational one. I bet that our best students on the day they got to teach their first principles of economics class as a graduate student they considered it a dream come true. You cannot say that about most graduate students (and faculty) who view teaching as a tax. The idea of explaining supply and demand to the unwashed undergraduates excites the minds of our best students at GMU. I hope we never loose that.
Here, btw, Pete Leeson was again a first-mover. I might say that supply and demand is the sexiest figure the students will ever see, but Pete actually has the tatoo on his arm to prove it. Talk about a pre-commitment device for becoming an economist!
Posted by: Peter Boettke | April 02, 2009 at 08:40 AM
Pete,
I think it has already been done:
http://austrianeconomists.typepad.com/weblog/2009/04/spread-of-student-programs.html#comments
Posted by: king mises | April 02, 2009 at 11:16 AM
NObody motivates like The Boettke. Congrats to you too, Pete. And keep up the good work for many decades to come.
Posted by: Ed Lopez | April 04, 2009 at 02:12 PM
Do not get your girls wear a plain white bridesmaid dress on stage in order to avoid distracting.
http://www.weddingdressmart.com
Posted by: bridesmaiddresses | April 08, 2011 at 05:29 AM