See what the UBCO Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences experience was like for our alumni — including some helpful advice for current students — and discover where they are now in their careers.
Name: Braydon Neiszner
Program: Bachelor of Arts, Honors in Economics with a Major in Mathematics
Graduated: May 2022
Hometown: Chestermere, Alberta
Why did you choose UBCO?
When still in high school, we had recruiters from UBCO visit our school and they spoke of a UBC campus in Kelowna and of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program. I had always been drawn to math, along with economics and social studies, which was very much politics and philosophy. So when I learned more about UBCO, it was like a light bulb turned on. I realized I could spend the next four years learning the things that I love.
Why did you choose your program and what do you like most about it?
In my first year, I took a diverse set of courses, including philosophy and economics. As I moved through that first year, I found I really enjoyed all the classes, but gravitated towards economics. It was the perfect amount of math and visualization and narrative that I needed. At that point, I knew was going to choose economics.
Do you have a favorite class, professor, or staff person? If so, who/what and why?
I really hit my stride and everything clicked in my second year, and that is almost entirely due to Dr. Noriko Ozawa. Dr. Ozawa extracts the best out of people, and has a passion for economics and teaching that to this day I still haven’t encountered. Dr. Ozawa does an extremely good job of nurturing fascination with the way that people try and explain the world while challenging her students. That was something that I had never seen before, and it was something that scratched an itch I didn’t know existed.
What are your future career and/or educational goals?
After graduating from UBCO, I completed my Master of Arts at the University of Toronto and am now working in a pre-doctoral fellowship at the Wharton School of Business, at the University of Pennsylvania. I hope to be at a top PhD program for Economics in the next year and the dream would be to work on projects that help us to better understand the cities we live in.”
How has your experience at UBCO changed you?
I am ready to take on the world. There is definitely no better place to go than UBCO. It’s a place that encourages you to think big, to think of all the possibilities, it’s a place that nourishes and develops you, all while preparing you for life post-graduation.
If you had to convince another student like you to go to UBCO, what would you say?
What is mind-blowing about UBCO is that when you leave, the school doesn’t leave you. You will forever be a part of this incredible network, no matter where you are in the world. When I have ‘UBC’ on my university sweater out in public, and someone recognizes UBC – you realize how much the network stretches across the world.