Winter 2006

HWS Economist Puts Teaching First

by Melissa Sorrells '05

It was a gorgeous, breezy afternoon in late August when Professor Jo Beth Mertens' Principles of Economics students gathered for their first meeting. Some of them were likely thinking about the things they would learn during the semester, but most were probably wondering how long Mertens would keep them indoors on such a beautiful day. One thing is for sure: none of them expected what happened next.

"I'm sure that some of you are in this class because you expect it to be easy. Some of you are hoping that I'll be a pushover and pamper you like your mother."

Mertens animatedly teaches her students

"Well, guess what? I'm not your mother. I will not dote on you. I will challenge you and be there all the way with you to help you reach your full potential, but the journey is yours and yours alone."

And thus began another semester for Mertens, who was recently named 2005 New York Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Mertens is the very definition of an applied economist, not exactly your first guess for Professor of the Year. Her litany of extracurricular activities is impressive. She began advising on tax policy while still a graduate student, working in Malawi and Nigeria for Harvard and the World Bank. In the 20 years since then, Mertens has served as a resident adviser to the Ministry of Finance in both the Ukraine and Russia, the U.S. Treasury's Senior Tax Advisor to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Head of the Revenue office for the Central Fiscal Authority in Kosovo. She is well respected on and off campus for her experiences and extensive list of published articles. But, as her students and colleagues have said repeatedly, it is her interaction with and respect for her students that have earned her so much admiration and the CASE award.

"While her teaching methods and background are extremely impressive, what makes Professor Mertens truly amazing is her compassion for her students," explains Anna Comerford '07. "You can almost always find her in her Stern Hall office with her door open, and she is always more than willing to discuss concerns and provide assistance."

Mertens is a relaxed and confident teacher. Leaning against the table in front of the classroom, she begins each period by outlining her plans for the next couple of sessions. She's asking a lot, but she is upfront about what she expects.

Her clear expectations are just one of the many little things about Mertens' teaching style that her students find refreshing. Every time she has to miss a class, Mertens reschedules so her students don't lose any valuable in-class time. She frequently brings in guest speakers who discuss their jobs and how they use statistical analysis in their daily lives, like Phil Gleason, a survey designer for the social policy research firm Mathematica.

As she teaches, Mertens moves about the room, gesturing with her hands to punctuate her points. Her students crane their necks to keep up with her when she moves to the blackboard, jotting easy-to-digest graphs and diagrams. She keeps the students engaged by tossing out questions as she goes.

"What's the definition of a deficit?"

"It is like car insurance..."

Economics is a field full of complicated mathematics and theory, so it wouldn't be unheard of for Mertens to spend her class periods drilling facts and formulas into her students' heads. But she's got a different take.

"The more I can get the students to ask and answer questions, the more involved they are, the more interested they are, the more attention they pay," she says. "I want them to learn the material. I want them to learn to think. I want them to learn to use their minds. That is what's most important to me."

Now there's a hand in the air, and Mertens stops in her tracks, running her fingers through her hair and thinking for a moment before launching into a lengthy explanation relating Social Security to car insurance, something many of the students are familiar with. Before long, the question asker and several other students around the room are nodding enthusiastically, and Mertens looks just as excited as they do. The connection made, she moves on with her lecture.

It's a given that students will internalize more facts when they can relate to the subject, and it's not unusual to find a teacher making comparisons in the classroom, but Mertens built an entire class around the concept. A course titled Sports Economics, Mertens' truly inspired brainchild, builds a bridge between complicated economic theory and something the students know: sports.

"Because the underlying topic is sports, [students] will slog through complex mathematical models and try to understand what they mean," explained Mertens. "I have created a rigorous upper level economics course that allows me to share my love of economic theory with students, and have my students understand and love that theory, too."

At HWS where service learning is extremely popular, Mertens is almost famous for it. While all Statistics students are required to complete a survey project, the surveys coming out of Mertens' classes have real world applications. For the past two years, her students have been gathering data at sporting events and feeding it to the Statesmen Athletic Association in an attempt to help them increase athletic event attendance.

"If students recognize that they are performing a service and what that means, there are real learning outcomes," she says. "Many students talk about how they work harder on this project because they know it is for someone else. Others say that being able to take what we were doing in the classroom and then apply it to the project helped them to get it. They can finally connect statistics to the real world."