Shane Vyskocil '19

In his four years at Bryant, Shane Vyskocil ’19 has done a lot, swimming with the NCAA Division I Men’s team, tutoring students at the Academic Center for Excellence, interning with New Jersey Congressman Rodney Feylinhuysen (R), and working as a research assistant with internationally-renown Holocaust expert Professor Michael Bryant, Ph.D., – all while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. Vyskocil’s taken all of those disparate experiences and influences, he says, and combined them into one big picture that’s prepared him for a bright future.

“A good education is about more than learning facts. It’s about learning the best ways to solve problems and being able to apply that to all sorts of different scenarios,” Vyskocil explains. “You need to be flexible to be successful in life.”

Take his coursework for example: a mix of economics, politics and law, and finance that’s preparing him to formulate public policy – and to make sure it works. Studying with professors such as Edi Tebaldi, Ph.D. whose extensive experience includes working with the World Bank, helped Vyskocil build the skills to support his ideas. “Having professors who understand that big picture application is really important,” he says. “Professor Tebaldi’s able to add a real-world aspect to everything he's teaching,”

As a senior, Vyskocil secured a position as an incoming Economic Associate at Regional Economic Models Inc., a firm that works to improve public policy through testing the economic effects of various decisions against high-level models. As part of the interview process, he had to make a presentation and chose to adapt a project he had done in his Economic Growth and Policy class about the Greek economy. “I think they were pretty impressed,” Vyskocil says.

His new job he says, is a perfect fit. “I want to do something that has an impact, and public policy directly affects so many people,” says Vyskocil. “It’s something I’ll feel good about doing.”

Real World Experience