Meichen Bian of Hefei City, Anhui Province, China will be honored as the student marshal for the Eberly College of Science during Penn State's summer commencement ceremonies on Saturday, Aug. 15, on the University Park campus. Bian's faculty escort for the commencement exercises will be Russell Cooper, professor of economics.
Bian will graduate with a 3.84 grade point average and bachelor of science degrees in mathematics and in economics. She was a Schreyer Honors College Scholar and a member of the dean's list for five semesters.
While at Penn State, Bian conducted research with Cooper examining the regional variation in financial return on investment in education in China. She found that the return on investment in education was higher in more economically developed regions of China. As part of her research, Bian demonstrated that the factors that influenced the regional variation in return on investment included the Chinese "hokou" system of household registration, patterns of migration, the level of parent's education and job opportunities.
"I am so honored and excited about this," said Bian. "This honor will encourage me to reach my career and lifetime goals. I also really appreciate the people, including my parents, teachers, and friends, who supported me, helped me, and inspired me no matter what happened. They are so important to me. I also want to thank the Penn State community, which gave me great opportunities to challenge myself, made me feel warmed when difficulties occurred, and helped me to become the person that I want to be."
"The most important lesson that I learned at Penn State is that if you really want something, then try your best and you can achieve it," said Bian. "As an economics major I started to double major in math at the beginning of my junior year, which is a bit late. However, I completed the math courses within the two years with good grades. This experience told me that it is never too late to begin anything. If you like it and feel it matters, then you can do it."
Following graduation, Bian plans to attend Duke University to pursue a master's degree in economics. She is the daughter of Yazhou Bian and Xiaoxia Liu.