Students present papers in Las Vegas
Joel Pavelski
Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: News
Hillsdale College seniors Matthew McCorkle and Gennady Stolyarov attended the annual meeting of The Association of Private Enterprise Education in Las Vegas, Nev., from April 6 to 8. Nikolai Wenzel, assistant professor of economics, and Ivan Pongracic, associate professor of economics, accompanied the students.
"It's a rewarding networking experience," Wenzel said, "and it's rejuvenating to spend three days hanging out with fellow geeks who are also obsessed with economics and liberty."
Stolyarov won his chance to attend the conference in essay contest sponsored by APEE, coming in third place and winning $1,500, the same prize that '07 alum Marianne Rodriguez won in 2006. Though he wasn't originally scheduled to speak, Stolyarov was invited to present a paper on Ayn Rand when a speaker dropped out on short notice.
"It was fortuitous that I had written enough about Ayn Rand in the past and stored it on my computer," Stolyarov said, "so I pulled citations from my other works, and was able to able to write what I thought was a nice speech."
"He wrote the paper the night before in his hotel room," Wenzel said, "and it was a deft synthesis of Rand's works."
McCorkle earned his attendance when Wenzel organized an essay contest in his class last year as an incentive. When the independent group of judges picked McCorkle's paper on China's constitutional culture as the best in class, he was invited to present it at the conference.
McCorkle said he witnessed "the operations of some less desirable market activities" upon going out in Vegas.
"I lost 8 dollars out of my annual 10 dollar [gambling] limit," Wenzel said.
"It's a rewarding networking experience," Wenzel said, "and it's rejuvenating to spend three days hanging out with fellow geeks who are also obsessed with economics and liberty."
Stolyarov won his chance to attend the conference in essay contest sponsored by APEE, coming in third place and winning $1,500, the same prize that '07 alum Marianne Rodriguez won in 2006. Though he wasn't originally scheduled to speak, Stolyarov was invited to present a paper on Ayn Rand when a speaker dropped out on short notice.
"It was fortuitous that I had written enough about Ayn Rand in the past and stored it on my computer," Stolyarov said, "so I pulled citations from my other works, and was able to able to write what I thought was a nice speech."
"He wrote the paper the night before in his hotel room," Wenzel said, "and it was a deft synthesis of Rand's works."
McCorkle earned his attendance when Wenzel organized an essay contest in his class last year as an incentive. When the independent group of judges picked McCorkle's paper on China's constitutional culture as the best in class, he was invited to present it at the conference.
McCorkle said he witnessed "the operations of some less desirable market activities" upon going out in Vegas.
"I lost 8 dollars out of my annual 10 dollar [gambling] limit," Wenzel said.
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