Economics graduate George Fenton was the student speaker at the Spring 2012 Commencement Ceremony (the largest ever for the University). His remarks were met with a standing ovation by students, faculty, and guests. If you missed his speech, or you just want to hear it again, you can watch it below.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/s3t1HDonvw8[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/yGSPFH2rC9g[/youtube]

George Fenton is majoring in economics with a minor in mathematics and will graduate through the Honors College. He competed with distinction as a member of the Talkin’ Broncos debate team during his freshman and sophomore years.  He spent the summer of 2010 studying at Georgetown University and interning at the U.S. Treasury Department. The summer of 2011 was spent studying at the London School of Economics. He is currently an intern for Brad Wiskirchen, CEO of the Boise technology firm Keynetics and director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Salt Lake City. George will be working for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors as a Research Assistant after graduation.

Economics major George Fenton and Business Economics major Eric Schuler have been selected as 2012 Top Ten Scholars by the Boise State Alumni Association.

George Fenton is majoring in economics with a minor in mathematics and will graduate through the Honors College. He competed with distinction as a member of the Talkin’ Broncos debate team during his freshman and sophomore years.  He spent the summer of 2010 studying at Georgetown University and interning at the U.S. Treasury Department. The summer of 2011 was spent studying at the London School of Economics. He is currently an intern for Brad Wiskirchen, CEO of the Boise technology firm Keynetics and director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Salt Lake City. George will be working for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors as a Research Assistant after graduation.

Honored Faculty: Dr. Kelly Cobourn, assistant professor, Department of Economics

Eric Schuler is a double major in business economics and accountancy. Eric co-founded the Delta Upsilon social fraternity and partnered with the Honors College to establish the Friday Forum, a weekly student-led discussion series that addresses topics ranging from food security to the Arab Spring. He is also a committed environmental advocate and has been involved with the Sustainability Club and worked to raise awareness about the benefits of a plant-based diet through cooking demonstrations and documentary screenings. During his senior year he served as vice president of the student body and helped create a new grant-based funding model for student organizations that will enable them to spend more time planning events and less time fundraising. Eric plans to attend law school with an emphasis in environmental law after graduation.

Honored Faculty: Allen Dalton, adjunct professor, Department of Economics

Dr. Sîan Mooney recently co-authored a paper, “Spatiotemporal analysis of prior appropriations water calls” which has been published in Water Resources Research.

Elbakidze, L., Shen, X. Z., Taylor, G., & Mooney, S. (2012). Spatiotemporal analysis of prior appropriations water calls. Water Resources Research, 48, (1).

Boise State University Economics graduate, Jon Sims, has been accepted by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Agricultural Economics for his M.S. Degree.  He has also been offered a full assistantship and fellowship that will allow him to complete research projects with the faculty in that department during his time there.

Kelly Cobourn, Zeynep Hansen and Scott Lowe presented research pertaining to water rights institutions at the American Economics Association (AEA) meetings in Chicago on Jan. 8. Cobourn and Hansen organized and moderated the session titled “Water Rights: Historical Perspectives and Emerging Issues.” Hansen and Lowe presented a paper titled “The Political Economy of Major Water Infrastructure Investments in the Western United States and the Impact on Agriculture,” and Cobourn presented a paper titled “Property Rights and Conjunctive Management: Implications of Hydraulic Connectivity between Surface and Ground Water.” The acceptance rate for sessions at the AEA meetings is about 3 percent to 4 percent for institutions similar to Boise State.

Cobourn also gave an invited oral presentation at the American Geophysical Union meetings in San Francisco on Dec. 7, 2011. The presentation, titled “Ecological vs. Economic Sustainability: An Integrated Analysis of Thresholds in Semi-Arid Western Rangelands,” was included as part of the session “Identifying and Quantifying Change in Ecological Systems.”

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