I came to Miami with a lot of Advanced Placement (AP) credit, and one of my microeconomics professors, Jerry Miller, noticed that and suggested I major in Quantitative Economics. At the time, I didn't consider myself a great math student, but he really encouraged me and built up my confidence, so I went ahead and pursued it, and it's worked out well.

One of the things I really like about it here is the interaction with professors. I find them very approachable, and I think that's one of Miami's strengths. I tell people if you reach out to them, they'll reach out to you.

Majoring in economics is definitely hard. The professors like to treat it like the Marine Corps, you know—the few, the proud. The fact that it's a difficult major makes it both high-risk and high-reward.

Outside of my major, I'm a member of Miami's Mock Trial team. Without a doubt, this has been the defining activity of my college years. We practice at least two days a week for three or four hours at a time and travel extensively to compete. Mock Trial teaches you so many things: public speaking confidence, critical thinking skills, and time-management. Many of us on the team want to be lawyers. By our very nature, we're a little more competitive and argumentative than most people.

Our team is blessed in that the University gives us a significant budget to help us perform well. We have a great faculty director, Dr. Dan Herron, who teaches business law, and some wonderful coaches who are local lawyers and judges. Through the years, Miami's team has been very successful. We haven't lost a regional championship in 12 years, and we've placed in the top 10 nationally among more than 600 teams for the past three years.

Right now my ultimate goal is to go to law school. But before that, I hope to work for "Teach for America." My reasons for that have to do with the fact that I've been coaching the Talawanda High School Mock Trial team for the past year, and I've developed a passion for teaching. I also believe in the saying, "To whom much is given, much is expected." I'm a recipient of the Harrison Scholarship, which paid for my tuition at Miami, so I want to give back to students less fortunate than me.