Graduate School

In September 2004 I started Thomas Jefferson.s Program in Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. During my first year I was approached by the Mason School of Business that asked me if I was interested in the joint degree program with MBA. After thinking about it for a little while I decided to join in hopes of gaining more knowledge primarily in the international aspects of both programs.

These last three years at William and Mary have been truly incredible! With the focus on International Development in Public Policy program and Entrepreneurship along with International Finance at the Business School, I have gained tremendous amounts of information and skills that I think will benefit me no matter where I go. My most favorite class in Business School was International Financial Management and I finished it with the highest grade in the class.

During my last year of Graduate School I was also a Graduate Assistant for Data Analysis course. This opportunity gave me a chance of not only gaining new information but a chance to learn how to convey this information to other students and help them with the understanding of the material. I have found this experience to be very rewarding and I hope that perhaps years down the road I could be a professor.

Last two years of Undergraduate Studies

My Junior and Senior years at William and Mary were devoted mostly to higher level economics courses such as Intermediate Micro- and Macroeconomics, Econometrics and History of Economic Theory. In addition to that, I took senior level International Relations courses such as International Law and special seminar on National Security taught by General Zinni. These last two years were most definitely very challenging but extremely rewarding at the same time. I am looking forward to being able to use the skills I learnt when I finally get out into “the real world”!

First two years of Undergraduate Studies

My first years at William and Mary were a little experimental. Even though I knew for certain that I was interested in International Relations, my childhood dream and my family roots were calling to try to take the Medicine direction. At the same time Math, which I have loved all my life, was pulling me toward its side, too. Thus, trying to make decisions about double majoring or minoring, my first two years were very diverse. In my freshman year I took classes such as Chemistry, Biology, Math, Philosophy, Theatre, US Government, US History after 1817, Study of English Language, Beginning Acting, and Freshman seminar on... Russian Literature. The latter was one of the most interesting classes I have taken. We were studying Crime and Punishment and Anna Karenina, and it was absolutely fascinating to see how different were American students' reactions to the plots and various characters in both novels compared to the reactions I have seen in Russia. It was truly amazing to find out that American students' perspectives were pretty much straight the opposite of the Russian ones! It was a great experience nevertheless.
My sophomore year was great. That was when I first became very fond of Economics. I had never taken it before, and after two basic courses I found it to be a very interesting and at times quite challenging subject. I started thinking about making it my double major.
Besides Econ courses, I was continuing with International Relations by taking International Relations, International Security, and Intro to International Economics. I also took History of Africa post 1800s, Linear Algebra, Computer Science, Public Speaking, the second half of my American History course, and Intermediate Acting.