According to the BYU–Hawaii Econ Club President Connor Hansen, a sophomore from Idaho majoring in economics, “Economics affects you no matter what. Econ is like gravity. The rules of economics are applying to your life right now and you have no say in that. You do have a say in your understanding. If you [do], you can get a better outcome.
“Economics isn’t just the study of money. That’s what most people think. It’s decision making and what’s happening in the world and how you can get the most out of the opportunities presented to you. That’s the skills and information that we teach in Econ Club. The values we promote are all about allowing people to make those decisions.”
Hansen said the Econ Club is for everyone regardless of major and knowledge. “One of the greatest values of Econ Club is the networks you build. Not only with fellow students, which has a lot of potential to pay out in the future, but here and now. The professors who are involved and like the club are willing to help out and offer some personal help. We provide that network for people to get in and get help.”
Finding the uses of an economics club on campus helpful to the average student, Dong Yeon Hong, a junior majoring in biochemistry from Korea, said, “I think economics is intimidating to people. I think if there were some basic workshops for students around the campus, that could help a lot of people be better with their understanding and use of money.”
Aaron Moffit, a junior majoring in hospitality and tourism management major from Arizona, said, “I think it’s a good idea to have this club. I feel like business ideas and economics can be discussed without having to worry about being graded. To discuss the economy in an open and conversational manner.”
Founding the club
Of the recently founded club, Hansen said, “This started off small, but our events started picking up steam outside of the normal membership. The most we had at an event was close to 30 or 40 people. We hope to maintain numbers like that.”
Beginning as a department club then expanding to a campus-wide club, Hansen explained, “When we introduced it as a campus club we tried to widen our scope and change a little bit. We want to provide people who are interested in econ [with] a place to study it further and more in depth then what you would normally do in a classroom setting.”
Hansen continued, “We have a lot of business majors who are members who just want that extra edge, and we also have people who are totally unrelated in their majors but are more interested in the political side. People who are politically active and believe in our vision and values. Economics and politics are closely intertwined and we will have some events related to that in the future.”
Hansen added, “Last semester we had a wonderful training on investment. She [the speaker] taught us how to enter the game and how to start investing [and] building up capital. We’re really focused on making our career workshops actually valuable.”
The Econ Club moving forward
According to Hansen, the Econ Club has big plans moving forward. “This semester, our purpose is to promote economic freedom. We do that by providing meaningful discussion, networking opportunities and education to the student body. This semester, we have someone from Capgemini [a consulting firm] who will come teach us about his job, economic freedom and also about his field, internships and getting a job in that field.
“For Fall Semester we have big dreams and big hopes. We’re trying to stay visible and we have some big events planned for the semester so hopefully we’ll drive up some visibility.”
Writer: Will Krueger