May 19th 2023 marked the first of many Economics workshops for the international economics graduate students at IFE. Derek Holste, a PhD student, was the first to present their topic. The workshop’s goal is to both better the technical skills of the students while also improving their public speaking. For their first topic, Derek presented and taught how to use LaTex and more specifically. Students who want to know how to better present their results and especially those who want to be professors after graduation should learn this important skill.
First, Derek gave a quick preview on the how to create a document in overleaf. From there, he created a simple mathematical equations you would commonly see with greek letters. The other students were then invited to try to finish equations themselves. Afterwards, Derek explained how to create tables by scratch in Overleaf. Once finished, he called on multiple different students to create their own tables and ask true or false questions on how to change a graph correctly. After consistently getting the answers correct, Derek and the Professor Haosheng Yan felt confident that could complete the graphs on their own.
The workshops themselves are group oriented compared to the normal lecture. Instead of the bulk of the duration having one speaker, it is meant for students to participate and ask questions to ensure they are following along. This creates a welcoming learning environment as all will be expected to try, fail and learn from their mistakes. The workshop is an important part of the education of international students in IFE, and will play an important role in improving the quality of international student education.
