The alumna’s undergraduate thesis explored female STEM student attrition.
Camille Kelley ’19 received recognition as the runner-up in the 2019 Omicron Delta Epsilon Frank W. Taussig Article Award competition.
The award recognizes the best article of the year submitted by an undergraduate or recent graduate who is a member of the international honor society for economics. Eight faculty members, in a double-blind review, selected a winner, runner-up and honorable mention.
Kelley was honored for her senior thesis, “The Gender Gap in STEM Fields: Female STEM Student Attrition.” In the paper, she analyzed data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ High School Longitudinal Survey of 2009 to identify the driving factors contributing to female student STEM attrition rates.
Katy Rouse, associate professor of economics, mentored Kelley throughout the research process.
Kelley graduated from Elon in 2019 with degrees in economics and pure mathematics. During her senior year, she presented her thesis at the Eastern Economic Association annual conference and received the Best Thesis award from Elon’s Department of Economics. She now works as a rotational leadership development program consultant at Sun Life Financial.
Omicron Delta Epsilon is one of the world’s largest academic honor societies with 696 chapters. It focuses on recognizing scholastic attainment and honoring outstanding achievements in economics; establishing closer ties between students and faculty in economics within and among colleges and universities; the publication of its official journal, The American Economist; and sponsoring panels at professional meetings.