Two Economics Alumni Receive Prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship Award

Two SMU Economics alumni have received prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship awards for the 2024-2025 academic year. The two Economics winners are Colton Fontenot, who will travel to the Slovak Republic and Victoria Romanczyk, who will go to Poland.

Colton (Cole) Fontenot graduated in May 2022 with a B.A. in economics, history, philosophy, and public policy and achieved the rare feat of completing three distinction theses during his senior year. Eager to learn more about educational systems in other countries, the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in the Slovak Republic will support Cole’s long-term goal of crafting more equitable education policy in the United States.

Victoria Romanczyk graduated in May with a B.S. in economics and statistical science and a B.A. in international studies.  She will teach not just Polish students, but students from all over the EU.  Victoria said that “this is a dream come true and for any upcoming seniors who are thinking about taking on a gap year or who are interested in seeing what it is like to live, work, or do research abroad I would definitely recommend looking into Fulbright programs.”

Congratulations Cole and Victoria!  We wish you the best of luck!

Spring Awards Luncheon

On April 23rd, the Department hosted the spring awards luncheon.  Omicron Delta Epsilon (ODE) inductees as well as departmental award winners were recognized for their accomplishments.

Enrique Martínez García, an economic policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, provided a talk on “Where Do Post-COVID Housing Markets Stand? A Shifting Outlook for Global Real Estate”.

Congratulations to all of our inductees and award winners!  Keep up the good work!

Human Trafficking Data Conference a huge success

The SMU Human Trafficking Data Research (HTDR) Project Team and volunteers hosted the first-of-its-kind SMU Human Trafficking Data Conference! It was an amazing 2-day event of human trafficking experts working together to learn, ask questions, and network. Researchers, practitioners, law enforcement and governmental officials, nonprofit organizations, data scientists, and other stakeholders met to discuss the quality, availability, and efficacy of human trafficking data.