Spotlighted Student: Diana Schoder '17

While touring a larger university, one of the guests in the tour group asked the tour guide what school she would have gone to if she hadn’t chosen the one in which she was enrolled. Her answer: Haverford College. Economics major Diana Schoder ’17 was on that tour, and she had never heard of Haverford College. It piqued her interest, and so she did some investigating and visited Haverford’s campus. It was “perfect”. The warmth of the community, the Honor Code, and such a clear and strong sense of ethics and values made it an easy decision to attend Haverford.

She was leaning toward a major in classics until she took Introduction to Economics with Professor David Owens. Much of the course work entailed reading articles in the New York Times and The Economist with follow-up group discussions about education, health issues and other topics. She was intrigued by the broad spectrum and applicability of economics.

Addressing environmental issues on a global level are important concerns for Diana. Blending her economics major with the environmental studies concentration provides her with the platform to tackle important global matters. Courses of particular interest have included Professor Steven Smith’s Natural Resource Economics and Thomas Donahue’s The Earth: Ethics, Politics, and Economics.

She plans to write her thesis on the illegal wildlife trade. Although she hasn’t settled on a research question yet, some possible avenues for exploration include bio-economic modeling, empirically analyzing the effects of trade bans, and understanding stockpiling behavior. She will most likely focus on the ivory trade, which tends to have more comprehensive data than other endangered species markets.

She has spent her summers working in various industries. The summer after her freshman year she lived on campus and commuted to Philadelphia to launch social media clean-water campaigns for Penn Environment, a non-profit organization whose goal is to “raise awareness of environmental issues and promote sensible solutions”. Getting involved with their petition and advocacy work was extremely fulfilling and a great experience.

The summer following her sophomore year she was granted a CPGC internship in New York City with Open Space Institute (OSI), a leader in environmental conservation and land protection. Diana wrote guides on climate change and assessed state wildlife action plans.

This past summer she stayed on campus and worked with economics Professor Steven Smith, an Environmental Economist, whose research predominantly focuses on natural resource economics and water policies.  She worked with data sets, summarizing statistical data and producing literature reviews on Peruvian water rights.  This proved to be a great learning experience, and she is continuing this research throughout this semester.

She serves on Haverford’s Council on Sustainability, where she works closely with a focus group on Investment and Governance. The working group is interested in revealing the community’s concerns through public budget and investment strategy forums.

Diana keeps very busy as a teaching assistant for economics professor Carola Binder; she is a Senior Interviewer for the admissions office; she is a Research Assistant for the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program at University of Pennsylvania; and she contributes to the on-line campus newsletter Green Scene.