One of the things about moving hundreds of miles is that, generally, you don’t know anyone in your new zip code.  Once the boxes basically are unpacked and whoever helped you move has returned home, the realization suddenly dawns that you are alone in a strange new place where hardly anyone knows your name, much less the real you.  I recall the feelings well–both when I moved from Texas to Indiana University (IU) for graduate school and when I moved from IU to begin working at IUP.  While starting life over again has certain advantages, it’s hard to escape the desire to share the company of someone who has first-hand experience of your past.  Enter old friends.

Upon moving to Pennsylvania, I soon realized that in a world in which the closest known Red Lobster was in Greensburg and the closest known Outback Steakhouse was in Monroeville, the drive between Indiana and Latrobe wasn’t really that far.  That triggered the memory that a fellow IU economics grad student had been hired as a faculty member at Saint Vincent College three years earlier.  Andy and I had shared the same dissertation advisor; his wife was completing her Ph.D. in Latin American history from IU, as well.  I looked them up on the web and fired off an email.  Enter famous economists.

Andy wrote back welcoming me to the area and suggesting that I come down for a dinner and subsequent lecture by Anna J. Schwartz (she had published with Milton Friedman) as part of an economic education series sponsored by Saint Vincent.  It proved to be a wonderful evening–both intellectually stimulating to hear from a premier economist and emotionally satisfying to connect with friends from my past.  And what began with a simple email subsequently has generated many positive externalities for our IUP students.

Over the last three years, Saint Vincent trips have evolved to now represent a regular feature of IUP Economics Club activities.  There are four Center for Economic and Policy Education lectures each semester.  On average, the other Dr. Jozefowicz and myself transport five students to Latrobe.  The ride down invariably provides time to talk informally and get to know the students better.  Saint Vincent sponsors a pizza party for students while the faculty and contributors gather for a sit-down dinner before the lecture.  On the occasions when only one or two students have traveled with us, then they have had the special opportunity to  join us and polish their formal dinner party skills.  We’ve heard from such famous economists as Vernon L. Smith (the “father” of experimental economics), Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Hal R. Varian, Charles Plosser, and James M. Walker (Andy’s and my dissertation advisor!).  The ride back to IUP invariably is filled with discussion of the speaker and further questions about economic analysis.  While some lectures are more accessible to the typical undergraduate student than others, the conversation is always lively.  Our students have yet to come back saying that the marginal cost of the sacrifice of five+ hours of their time to go on the trip hasn’t exceeded his/her marginal benefit.  We’re looking forward to what Gene Grossman and others will have to say this year.