My Aspirations: Economic Development

I took my Economic Development class's final exam earlier this week, and now that I look at it, I lament that the semester has concluded. Of any of the classes I had taken at this university, this was by far the most fruitful and applicable to my aspirations in life. This was a class that truly covered such a wide array of topics that I feel equipped to go out and solve the world's predicaments...believe me, that's only fraction of the idealist zeal in me.

While taking the final exam for that class, I thought I was a member of Egypt's technocratic, neo-liberal economic cabinet drafting solutions to tackle corruption, poverty, and the various other problems that developing countries like Egypt face. This was truly a class in which every lecture awed me. I felt that my mind was being stretched beyond imagination, where, for once, I felt knowledge convert to insight. This class truly brought me to the realization that it is a true shame that 1/6th of the world's inhabitants lives in extreme poverty and that one must be the change they want to see in the world, as Gandhi would put it. Hopefully this class will only serve as a stepping stone for my career aspirations to become an asset for my country and the developing world.

It all began after attending a lecture given by Nobel Laureate Robert Solow here at the University of Virginia. I recall Solow walking past me when entering the room at Newcomb Hall. I was amazed that I was seeing a role model before my eyes. I recall his lecture divulged into the complexities of labor and its supply in the Solow Growth Model, but to be quite frank, I was almost clueless about what he was discussing during that lecture.
I never would have imagined that Solow's model would be the core theory of economic growth in the Economic Development class I have just taken. The fact that I had seen Solow before my own eyes was a tremendous motivator to grasp the concepts behind his proposed model that have revolutionized how policymakers finetune their economies nowadays. What I truly appreciate about the model is that it bridges the gap between my two major fields of study, i.e. economics and engineering by factoring in the indispensable variable of technology to account for output growth per worker. Empirically, this model predicts that 4/5 of growth per worker in the US is due to technical progress. I am an ardent believe that only through technilogical innovation can a country "catch up." Solow currently is a professor at MIT, my dream institution for continuing my economics studies and where some of Egypt's brightest economists, such as Egypt's Minister of Finance Boutrous Ghali, earned their PhD degrees.

It is only after earning my education will I strive to attain a position in a multinational institution, such as the World Bank or IMF so as to attain the foremost experience that international economics has to offer. Ultimately, I hope to bring this wealth of knowledge back to Egypt. I am a firm believer that import of knowledge and technology are the core mechanisms to advance a country's economic standing. My dream is to someday speak at one of the World Economic Forum conferences, which in my eyes represent the forefront of global policy making.

These are all dreams of course, but I believe that it is only when you dream big and aim for the moon that you may land amongst the stars. It is the little things in life, such as merely seeing a personage, such as Sollow, or taking a college class that an inspire you to change the world, at least I believe.