Celebrating 2023-24 student achievements in economics

May 24, 2024

On April 3, 2024, Lazaridis School of Business and Economics faculty, students, and staff gathered at Wilfrid Laurier University to celebrate at the inaugural Economics Student Appreciation event. The afternoon was an opportunity to recognize scholarship recipients, competition winners, and other student successes in the Department of Economics.

“Our students are doing amazing things across campus, Canada, and internationally,“ said Justin Smith, associate professor, associate chair, and undergraduate economics program director at the Lazaridis School. “I'm impressed with the great work students in the department are doing in their classes and in their extra-curricular activities. We have students who have participated in the Bank of Canada Governor's Challenge, students who have won scholarships, varsity sports athletes, and more.  We want to do as much as we can to make sure everyone knows that our students are doing great things and working hard, which, in turn elevates the reputation of Economics, the Lazaridis School and Laurier.”

Smith said, while the prizes and awards matter, student feedback on the Economics Appreciation event has shown how critical recognition is for student success and well-being.

“Students really want to build their skills, learn something interesting, network with others in the field, and as an added bonus, this recognition is hopefully something to boost their professional profiles. That was a big part of what we wanted to do there—really recognize what our students are doing in the Economics program and across the Lazaridis School,” Smith said.

The Economics Appreciation event recognized numerous award recipients: 

SMITH Competition 

Nine students were recognized for winning the school’s first economics prediction competition, the Students Mastering Intriguing Testable Hypotheses (SMITH) Competition. The competition is based on the Kaggle Data Science Competition, where participants use publicly available datasets to build and test predictions. This year’s theme was predicting immigration levels by municipality and winners were named for each year of study.

“The motivation behind the prediction competition was to give students more opportunities to put their data analysis skills to use. The Kaggle competitions are very popular, and we thought a similar competition would be an inclusive opportunity for all of our students,” Smith said. “We had over 30 teams sign up, and one of the top teams ended up being a group of second-year students. I tried to replicate it myself but couldn't! I am thoroughly impressed with their work!”

Amirhossein Adhami is in his second year of the Supply Chain Operations and Technology Management PhD program and the graduate winner of the SMITH Competition. He says the recognition for his win reminded him why he chose Lazaridis for his post-graduate studies.

“It was really life-affirming to have some competitive opportunities while you're studying. It really motivates you to challenge yourself,” Adhami said.

Second-year Economics undergraduate student Shayna Mehta was on the second-year winning team for the SMITH Competition. Originally from Markham, Mehta says she chose the Lazaridis School for its reputation—and it didn’t hurt that her dad and aunts are Laurier alums.

Mehta joined the competition by herself and was placed with a team, which she said was a chance to build new connections with her fellow economics students. Having a close-knit community is one of the things she enjoys most about studying at Laurier.

“It's a very tight community, I would say, which I like about the school. You're friends with everyone. You're always going to see someone on campus that you know, especially in the Lazaridis building,” Mehta said.

First-year winners:

Madison Bonehill
Jenny Qu

Second-year winners:

Shayna Mehta
Suraj Rakesh
Yuyun Du
Seemi Khokhar

Fourth-year winners:

Songyang Liu
Fan Zhang

Graduate winner:

Amirhossein Adhami

Peter Sinclair Award

Lauren Dillon, a fourth-year Economics student from Walkerton, Ontario, plans to attend the Climate Risk diploma program at the University of Waterloo after graduation. She said the recognition highlights the value of hard work and dedication.

“Through this experience, I’ve come to appreciate that economics is present in every aspect of our lives, extending far beyond policy and fiscal measures. Investigating the economic dynamics of my hometown has been a captivating experience making me appreciate where I come from more and more,” Dillon said. “Despite Walkerton’s tragic water crisis, it’s important to recognize the resilience of the town and its community. The lessons learned from the crisis have catalyzed positive changes in policy, prompting the government to enact crucial legislation such as the Clean Water Act and the Ontario Safe Drinking Water Act.”

Winners: 

Stephanie Caleca: "Drunk Driving - Progressive Transportation Makes for a Regressive Habit Amongst Today's Young Adults"

and

Lauren Dillon: “The effects of environmental crises on local economies: Evidence from the Walkerton crisis"

Runner Up:

Max Caré: " Commuter Rail Expansion: An Investigation of the Effects of the Increased Accessibility of Commuter Rail Trains on Local Personal Vehicle Commuting Rates"

Undergraduate Short Paper Prize           

Bryan Jones: “Coins, Coffers, and Currencies: An Economic Analysis of Daniel Abraham’s The Dagger and the Coin"

Bank of Canada Governor’s Challenge Team

Moeez Afzal, Yujie Chen, Zachary Harvey, Ewan Markwell and Melissa Meyer were recognized as this year's Lazaridis Economics Bank of Canada team, for their placement as runners-up for the Bank of Canada Governor’s Challenge, promoting an understanding of monetary policy's role in Canada’s economy. 

“The challenge was great,” Afzal says. We spent months every day working and competing with other schools and made it to the finals. While we didn’t win the challenge, we appreciated Laurier's recognition. It encourages students to do more with their time and get more involved.”

Afzal is a fourth-year Economics student who plans to attend law school after graduation.

TABE Student Competition 2024 Team

Zainab Shina, Hridita Raihan, and Hari Patel were recognized for competing at the Toronto Association for Business & Economics (TABE) Student Competition. The trio are  students in the Master of Arts in Business Economics (MABE) program. The TABE Student Competition is a yearly challenge for students to apply economic concepts to solve real-world problems.

“Participating in our first-ever competition focused on crafting a climate-related policy brief was a transformative experience,” Shina said. “It pushed us beyond our academic comfort zones, especially for those of us with backgrounds in economics rather than environmental studies. However, with the guidance and support of our faculty advisors, particularly Christine Neill, who served as a mentor every step of the way, we rose to the challenge.”

Max Lowenstein Scholarship        

Yujie Chen

Alastair Robertson Scholarship

Yujie Chen

Jennifer Ann Whybrow Memorial Award

Angela Kulina
Suraj Rakesh

Ralph Blackmore Award

Suraj Rakesh