Living the Life of a Market Analyst

By Dr. Mary Ellen Benedict

When I first met Kevin Fowler, I was fairly new as department chair, worried about making mistakes, but loving one part of the job, advising all of the economics majors.  Kevin was one of those individuals I started to advise early on.  He was a bit on the quiet side, but I could tell immediately that here was a person who was interested in learning.  After graduating from BGSU with a BS-Economics degree in May of 2014, Kevin has certainly used the skills developed as an economics major to find a job that suits him very well.

Kevin is currently working as a market analyst for Bulletin Healthcare in the Washington DC area.  In the eleven months he has been with the company, Kevin has impressed his employer so much that he has a good deal of autonomy and is currently a project manager, helping to oversee progression of client materials and assets.  His work involves the analysis of health care output, which is used for the development of sales and marketing strategies.

Despite a long commute, Kevin loves his job and thanks the Economics Department for the skills he was able to bring to the position.  He states that he got his “mojo” by doing research projects for many of his economics classes.  He uses his extraordinary talent for writing on the creative end of his job, where he must analyze and write reports on market trends.  More important, he believes that the department helped to develop his critical thinking skills so that he understands how to develop better insight as he conducts research. Kevin states: “I first switched my major to Economics because it was a topic I was mildly interested in during high school, but the reason I kept it as a major was the amazing staff in the Econ Department and the College of Business. I'd dare to wager you won't find a more passionate collection of educators in the country.”

When I asked which classes helped him the most, Kevin stated that Managerial Economics and Environmental Economics were most helpful.  In both, he was forced to look at different viewpoints about issues, which today helps him to think critically about the information that crosses his path.  Kevin and I didn’t always agree on what the answer was to an economic or social problem, but he always made intelligent arguments for his point-of-view, and these arguments grew as Kevin moved through BGSU to graduation.

I know, I brag way too much about our economics majors, but Kevin is the perfect example of someone who was a bit lost as a sophomore, came to the department, and blossomed.  That’s why I brag – the Kevin Fowlers of the world are who make the department what it is.  Congrats to one of our young graduates on finding exciting and satisfying employment!