Business and Economics

The  Center for Business and Economics at Allegheny College will hold its 10th Annual Big Idea Competition on April 28-29 in Quigley Hall. The contest emulates the experiences seen on the popular CNBC broadcast, “Shark Tank”. The public is welcome to attend the final round of presentations on Saturday, April 29 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Students will present entrepreneurial concepts with the chance to receive funding through cash prizes. The ideas must fit into one of four areas: For-profit Business, Not-for-profit Social Venture, Research Project, or Community Engagement Initiative. Students work in teams and design 20-minute presentations for their ideas, which they present at the competition.

The $5,000 first place prize has been renamed The Zingale Prize in honor Allegheny College alumnus Mr. Lance Zingale ’77, who donated the funding for the prizes. In total, $10,000 in prizes and trophies will be awarded, with 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-place teams receiving trophies, monetary prizes, and honorable mentions.

Some students have re-purposed their Junior Seminar or Senior Comp projects, or have taken the Economics of Entrepreneurship II class, in order to prepare for this competition. This year, there are 27 teams of one to three students each; seven of the teams are from Grove City College.  The remaining 20 consist of Allegheny students.  Some of the students are taking entrepreneurship-focused classes such as Economics of Entrepreneurship II &  Entrepreneurship in Interactive Entertainment (Computer Science focus).

The competition will be judged by a panel of alumni, as well as two faculty members. 

Some students are able to take their projects even further and continue to develop their concepts outside of the competition. Francisco Quezada ’16, who won last year, expanded his winning proposal and eventually started a company called Volta Technologies.

Entrepreneur in Residence Chris Allison and Sarah Holt are co-coordinators of the the Big Idea competition. Allison says he sees students benefit through the experience of creating business designs.

“Students who participate learn how to build a business, social venture or community engagement project, and manage a research project,” Allison said. “They also learn how to convince executives to fund these projects, and how to put their coursework into action.”

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

The  Center for Business and Economics at Allegheny College will hold its 11th Annual Big Idea Competition on April 28-29 in Quigley Hall. The contest emulates the experiences seen on the popular CNBC broadcast, “Shark Tank”. The public is welcome to attend the final round of presentations on Saturday, April 29 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Students will present entrepreneurial concepts with the chance to receive funding through cash prizes. The ideas must fit into one of four areas: For-profit Business, Not-for-profit Social Venture, Research Project, or Community Engagement Initiative. Students work in teams and design 20-minute presentations for their ideas, which they present at the competition.

The $5,000 first place prize has been renamed The Zingale Prize in honor Allegheny College alumnus Mr. Lance Zingale ’77, who donated the funding for the prizes. In total, $10,000 in prizes and trophies will be awarded, with 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-place teams receiving trophies, monetary prizes, and honorable mentions.

Some students have re-purposed their Junior Seminar or Senior Comp projects, or have taken the Economics of Entrepreneurship II class, in order to prepare for this competition. This year, there are 27 teams of one to three students each; seven of the teams are from Grove City College.  The remaining 20 consist of Allegheny students.  Some of the students are taking entrepreneurship-focused classes such as Economics of Entrepreneurship II &  Entrepreneurship in Interactive Entertainment (Computer Science focus).

The competition will be judged by a panel of alumni, as well as two faculty members. 

Some students are able to take their projects even further and continue to develop their concepts outside of the competition. Francisco Quezada ’16, who won last year, expanded his winning proposal and eventually started a company called Volta Technologies.

Entrepreneur in Residence Chris Allison and Sarah Holt are co-coordinators of the the Big Idea competition. Allison says he sees students benefit through the experience of creating business designs.

“Students who participate learn how to build a business, social venture or community engagement project, and manage a research project,” Allison said. “They also learn how to convince executives to fund these projects, and how to put their coursework into action.”

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Jesse Tomkiewicz and Carlos Sanchez had a simple but powerful message for Harrisburg: Invest in education.

The first-year Allegheny College students were among the more than 225 students from more than 30 private nonprofit colleges and universities who traveled to the state capital on April 4 as part of Student Aid Advocacy Day, sponsored by the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Pennsylvania. The annual event gives students from AICUP-member institutions a chance to meet legislators and encourage them to support private colleges and universities. Allegheny has been sending student representatives for at least the past five years.

This year’s event focused primarily on opposing a 50% proposed cut in institutional assistance grants, maintaining funding of PHEAA grant program, and growing the Ready to Succeed Scholarship program to benefit more middle-income students.

Tomkiewicz and Sanchez spent the day meeting with staff members from the offices of Rep. Brad Roae, Rep. Mike Schlossberg, Rep. Peter Schweyer, Sen. Michele Brooks, Sen. Pat Browne, and Gov. Tom Wolf. At each meeting, they handed out fact sheets and information detailing how financial assistance helps students at private colleges and universities, including Allegheny, and the return on investment in higher education.

For Sanchez, an 18-year-old economics major from Allentown, Pennsylvania, the issue is a personal one.

“I receive a lot of federal and state aid. Cutting down these programs could eventually affect my tuition and what I receive in financial aid,” Sanchez said. “This (state budget proposal) is going to affect a lot of students. … This isn’t something that just affects Allegheny. This affects the whole state. I felt it was my responsibility to go and speak on behalf of the people I know and also some of the students I know here who might be affected by this.”

Investing in education just makes sense, Sanchez said.

“When you invest in school you’re investing in future taxpayers,” he said.

Tomkiewicz, 19, a philosophy and political science major from Freeport, Pennsylvania, sees the value of college degree — and the financial aid necessary to make it possible — when he looks around his hometown.

Workers at the steel mill in Freeport recently held an eight-month strike. The brick factory closed. Family-sustaining manufacturing jobs once available to high school graduates are disappearing.

“You can’t just graduate high school with a C-average, go to the steel mill and make $70,000 or $80,000 in a union with great benefits and have a great life right out of high school. You can’t really do that anymore,” said Tomkiewicz, who is a first-generation college student.

A college education is necessary, he said, but only possible for many students with the help of financial aid. In addition to the fact sheets outlining their case for funding, Tomkiewicz and Sanchez brought along student profiles to “humanize” the issue for legislators.

“It puts a face to who receives this aid,” Tomkiewicz said. “It shows that it’s not just numbers on a sheet. Funding has real consequences and real effects for people.”

Both Sanchez and Tomkiewicz said it’s important for students to get personally involved, on the issue of higher education funding or any other issue that is important to them. Communicating with legislators is one way to do that.

“If you go up to them and go up and talk to them, they see your issue,” Sanchez said.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Jesse Tomkiewicz and Carlos Sanchez had a simple but powerful message for Harrisburg: Invest in education.

The first-year Allegheny College students were among the more than 225 students from more than 30 private nonprofit colleges and universities who traveled to the state capital on April 4 as part of Student Aid Advocacy Day, sponsored by the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Pennsylvania. The annual event gives students from AICUP-member institutions a chance to meet legislators and encourage them to support private colleges and universities. Allegheny has been sending student representatives for at least the past five years.

This year’s event focused primarily on opposing a 50% proposed cut in institutional assistance grants, maintaining funding of PHEAA grant program, and growing the Ready to Succeed Scholarship program to benefit more middle-income students.

Tomkiewicz and Sanchez spent the day meeting with staff members from the offices of Rep. Brad Roae, Rep. Mike Schlossberg, Rep. Peter Schweyer, Sen. Michele Brooks, Sen. Pat Browne, and Gov. Tom Wolf. At each meeting, they handed out fact sheets and information detailing how financial assistance helps students at private colleges and universities, including Allegheny, and the return on investment in higher education.

For Sanchez, an 18-year-old economics major from Allentown, Pennsylvania, the issue is a personal one.

“I receive a lot of federal and state aid. Cutting down these programs could eventually affect my tuition and what I receive in financial aid,” Sanchez said. “This (state budget proposal) is going to affect a lot of students. … This isn’t something that just affects Allegheny. This affects the whole state. I felt it was my responsibility to go and speak on behalf of the people I know and also some of the students I know here who might be affected by this.”

Investing in education just makes sense, Sanchez said.

“When you invest in school you’re investing in future taxpayers,” he said.

Tomkiewicz, 19, a philosophy and political science major from Freeport, Pennsylvania, sees the value of a college degree — and the financial aid necessary to make it possible — when he looks around his hometown.

Workers at the steel mill in Freeport recently held an eight-month strike. The brick factory closed. Family-sustaining manufacturing jobs once available to high school graduates are disappearing.

“You can’t just graduate high school with a C-average, go to the steel mill and make $70,000 or $80,000 in a union with great benefits and have a great life right out of high school. You can’t really do that anymore,” said Tomkiewicz, who is a first-generation college student.

A college education is necessary, he said, but only possible for many students with the help of financial aid. In addition to the fact sheets outlining their case for funding, Tomkiewicz and Sanchez brought along student profiles to “humanize” the issue for legislators.

“It puts a face to who receives this aid,” Tomkiewicz said. “It shows that it’s not just numbers on a sheet. Funding has real consequences and real effects for people.”

Both Sanchez and Tomkiewicz said it’s important for students to get personally involved, on the issue of higher education funding or any other issue that is important to them. Communicating with legislators is one way to do that.

“If you go up to them and go up and talk to them, they see your issue,” Sanchez said.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

As President Trump and the Republican-led Congress navigate the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, there are many questions about how the promises made on the campaign trail are being incorporated into government policy. What changes in economic policy can we expect to see during a Trump presidency, and how will those policies affect Americans?

The 16^th Annual Executive Roundtable at Allegheny College, hosted by the college’s Center for Business and Economics and Law & Policy Program, will bring together experts to speak on “The Trump Presidency: Economic Policy Opportunities and Challenges,” from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Monday, April 3. The roundtable in the college’s Ford Memorial Chapel is free and open to the public.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

As President Trump and the Republican-led Congress navigate the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, there are many questions about how the promises made on the campaign trail are being incorporated into government policy. What changes in economic policy can we expect to see during a Trump presidency, and how will those policies affect Americans?

The 16^th Annual Executive Roundtable at Allegheny College, hosted by the college’s Center for Business and Economics and Law & Policy Program, will bring together experts to speak on “The Trump Presidency: Economic Policy Opportunities and Challenges,” from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Monday, April 3. The roundtable in the college’s Ford Memorial Chapel is free and open to the public.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

As President Trump and the Republican-led Congress navigate the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, there are many questions about how the promises made on the campaign trail are being incorporated into government policy. What changes in economic policy can we expect to see during a Trump presidency, and how will those policies affect Americans?
The 16^th Annual Executive Roundtable at Allegheny College, hosted by the college’s Center for Business and Economics and Law & Policy Program, will bring together experts to speak on “The Trump Presidency: Economic Policy Opportunities and Challenges,” from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Monday, April 3. The roundtable in the college’s Ford Memorial Chapel is free and open to the public.
Panelists will include Karen Ubelhart ’77, senior industrials analyst for Bloomberg and a member of Allegheny’s Board of Trustees; Martin Pfinsgraff ’77, retired senior deputy comptroller for Large Bank Supervision, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and a member of Allegheny’s Board of Trustees; Norman Robertson, economic advisor for Smithfield Trust Company and former chief economist for Mellon Bank; and Jason MacDonald, associate professor of political science, West Virginia University.Moderating the roundtable will be Tomas Nonnenmacher, professor of economics at Allegheny.
The roundtable’s expert panelists from the world of economics and politics will discuss the implications of President Trump’s initial policy initiatives and the economic opportunities and challenges that will confront him during his presidency.
“We expect that the Executive Roundtable will serve as a forum in which we can discuss the economic policies, challenges and opportunities facing the new administration with the objectivity and civility that have long defined Allegheny College,” said Russ Ormiston, assistant professor and co-director of the Center for Business and Economics.
The Executive Roundtable is supported by the Earl W. Adams Jr. Endowment, established by Allegheny College trustee William H. Brown Jr., Allegheny class of 1980, in honor of Professor Earl William Adams Jr. — teacher, mentor and friend. For more information on the roundtable, contact cbe@allegheny.edu.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Assistant Professor of Economics Hyun Woong Park presented his paper “Technical Change and the Rate of Profit When Output is Driven by Price-Value Deviation” on February 26, at the Eastern Economic Association Annual Conference 2017.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Assistant Professor of Economics Hyun Woong Park presented his paper “Technical Change and the Rate of Profit When Output is Driven by Price-Value Deviation” on February 26, at the Eastern Economic Association Annual Conference 2017.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Terry Hartford didn’t know he’d end up at Chatham Financial soon after graduating from Allegheny College in 2011.

But when he arrived at Chatham, a Pennsylvania-based advisor specializing in real estate capital markets and risk management, he found it to be a good fit: The attributes that make for successful Chatham employees, Hartford said, are the same attributes he developed while earning his economics degree here. Chatham values employees who are intellectually curious, who can solve complex problems, who are collaborators, who have good communication skills, who can work with limited direction and who have the initiative to leverage the experiences of their colleagues, among other skills, he said.

“Allegheny ticks all of those boxes,” Hartford said.

Hartford spent a day on campus recently visiting economics classes and speaking with students about his Allegheny experience, what he would have done differently as a student, his career at Chatham, and the value of his Allegheny degree.

Over a pizza lunch in the Henderson Campus Center, Hartford told a group of students that the variety of classes offered by the college gives students a broad base of knowledge and emphasizes analysis and critical thinking, skills that have served him well at Chatham. Allegheny also prepares students to be confident communicators and presenters and to work as a team, he said.

There are intangible benefits to the Allegheny experience as well, Hartford said, including the diverse expertise of faculty, a climate that encourages and rewards intellectual curiosity, and a heavy course load.

“You really have no choice but to work hard and manage your time,” he said.

Before giving students an in-depth overview of his work at Chatham as a consultant on the Global Real Estate team — he spends much of his time advising clients on how to hedge their risks when it comes to real estate-related debt — Hartford spoke about the things he wishes he would have done differently while on campus. He told the group to be proactive in determining their future, to choose the best — not the easiest — electives, and to use all the available resources at their disposal, including the time and expertise of professors and alumni.

“Ask a lot of questions. Get as much information as you can and don’t be shy,” Hartford said.

Later, Hartford said the purpose of his talk and visit was to “give (students) a look into what’s possible with an economics degree and reassure them of the quality of an Allegheny degree.” He also said he’d like to see a formal or informal relationship between Chatham and Allegheny in the future that could result in internships or other opportunities for Allegheny students.

Hartford and other alumni who return to campus to speak about their careers and experience also help dispel myths about careers and expose students to careers they might not have considered or thought possible, said Professor of Economics Stephen Onyeiwu, who also attended Hartford’s talk.

“Sometimes you don’t know what’s involved in a particular career until you’ve heard someone talk about it,” Onyeiwu said.

One of the students who gathered for Hartford’s lunchtime talk, senior political science major Jonas Skattum, said he valued the chance to hear from a recent graduate.

“He’s been where I’m about to go,” Skattum said of Hartford. “Hearing his experiences and the challenges he faces, you learn a lot. … It gives you insight as to how we can achieve our goals.”

Source: Academics, Publications & Research