Semester 4

The fourth semester was the most difficult one for me. On one hand, I chose two Econ classes for my concentration in Economics. On the other hand, I had to do my Capstone paper. To make things even more challenging, I was commuting off campus to my part-time job at Burr Consulting. This took an overall of 25-27 hours per week. I chose the following elective courses:

“Business-Government Relations,” with Professor Wesley Truitt. This course focuses on the proper role of government in monitoring, regulating, assisting, and promoting business activities around the world. It considers such topics as national trade policies, multinational regional economic groupings, global quasi-governmental institutions, international protection of intellectual property, and issues relating to domestic, transnational, multinational corporations as they interact with governments. Using cases and articles, the course also addresses business/government relationships from a business perspective, focusing on strategies, policies, and procedures businesses can and do employ vis-à-vis government at all levels domestically and internationally to achieve their objectives. Source, the professor syllabus. For this class I bought Wesley B. Truitt, What Entrepreneurs Need to Know about Government, Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004.
“Applied Econometrics,” with Professor James Prieger. Econometrics is the application of statistics to economic data and questions. Since economics is generally a non-experimental science, and we must use data as the world gives it to us, econometricians have developed their own toolbox of techniques. Therefore, learning econometrics differs in some respects from a general statistics class. Source, the professor syllabus. I bought the book Introduction to Econometrics, 2nd ed, by James Stock and Mark Watson.
“The Economics and Policy of Science and Innovation,” with Professor James Prieger. Innovation is the hallmark of the US economy. In this course we discussed varied topics in the economics of science and innovation policy. These included the role of innovation as a driver of macroeconomic growth, whether the government should subsidize research, how intellectual property rights provide incentive for innovation, how the US patent system can be improved, and issues regarding innovation in the global economy. I
For my Capstone presentation I got my "power tie"

also bought the following books: Innovation and Incentives by Suzanne Scotchmer (MIT Press) and Innovation and Its Discontents by Adam Jaffe and Josh Lerner (Princeton Univ. Press).
“Capstone Policy Seminar,” with Professor James Coyle. This course, taken in the final semester of the program, is designed to provide an integrative experience by developing an actual program or policy implementation in cooperation with a local, state, national, or international agency which has been given a specific policy directive. Consideration is given to evaluation and measurement of the expected outcome of the policy, personnel, budgetary needs and impact, and the development of support among public and private parties whose cooperation is necessary for success. To develop leadership skills further, this project is to be completed as a team exercise which will be reviewed and evaluated not only by faculty, but by agency officials and possibly key representatives of constituencies affected by the policy. Source, The Academic Catalogue 2006-2007 of Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. I did my Capstone paper on the United States national security strategy regarding Syria and I bought the following books: Coyle and Roskin, Politics of the Middle East: Culture and Conflict, 2^nd Edition and Little, Douglas, American Orientalism.

This semester I celebrated my 28 birthday at Brad and Bryan’s place in Santa Monica. Many friends showed up:

[View with PicLens]

During the little free time that I had left, I tried to spend as much time as possible with my classmates or friends from campus, as I did on a beautiful Easter day:

[View with PicLens]

By the end of the semester I got a nice little camera, one of the smartest investments that I made. So, I went ahead to interview my fellow classmates during their Education Capstone Project Presentations. Here’s what they did:

Scoompy and her latinos project