Blanchard began by reflecting on a moment during her senior year at Wellesley when she learned, “I just had to put pen to paper and get the work done. And that’s what I’ve tried to do. I’ve taken that piece of advice and just tried to get the work done for all of these years, a few decades.”

 Blanchard said she hoped sharing her experience would allow Wellesley students to “think about how you can do similar things, engage in the world.” 

As she provided background on the current global economy, Blanchard discussed a number of external factors affecting how resources are used in the world and how that in turn shapes geopolitics. For example, competition has increased between nations, such as “the growing and intensified great power rivalry between the United States and China.” Additionally, global conflicts and war “have enormous implications for the global economy, and the way the global economy is structured today.” Other important factors she noted included the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and technological innovation. 

“We have layers upon layers of issues that intersect and weave together and build together … What do you do when you take all of this and you’re trying to create international economic policy from the US State Department?” Blanchard said.

In her work as chief economist at the State Department Blanchard often had to work to resolve provisions in some pieces of legislation that would lead to unintended or controversial spillover effects. She highlighted three pieces of legislation that had such effects: the bipartisan infrastructure bill, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act aimed to “to develop the green technologies that we need here in the United States today,” yet also contained “a bunch of other provisions that have subsidies that encourage companies to build here, not there.” Blanchard described how policies like these could upset allies and companies from other countries. Her office mitigated the issue by finding “a reading of the legislation that is going to make our lives with decarbonization of EV adoption as fast as possible and not upset our allies.” 

Blanchard also described imposing sanctions against Russia as a “huge set of my work …We do not want to support that war in any way, shape or form. So that means don’t send him[Putin] things he needs to execute the war. Obviously military material, missiles, guns, armors, but also all of the military material. What are all those things? Figure it out fast. Do the economics.  Figure out what are all the parts that the Russians might need to do that,” she said.

 Blanchard highlighted the complex aspects of sanctions involving her office tracking flows of commerce to neighboring countries and Russia’s allies to ensure war materials were not being backdoored into the country. “It’s hard work, and it takes a lot of analytics,” she said. 

Finally, Blanchard touched on her career path and “externally valuable lessons from that period.” She described graduating from Wellesley, spending two years in economic consulting, going back to school to earn her PhD then teaching for a number of years before her tenure as Chief Economist. She said while it can be “very tempting to look back at somebody’s resume and say, oh my goodness, that’s so linear,” her path involved numerous indecisions and unexpected opportunities. Her final piece of advice to Wellesley students was to “go through life and your career with that same openness. Just be eager, be curious, go serve. And thank you, because we need you.” 

Image credit: state.gov

Contact the editor(s) responsible for this story: Diya Khanna and Phoebe Rebhorn

Yet the Schneider Board of Governor’s (SBOG) annual Headphone Disco was anything but silent. The event kicked off the start of the school year, boasting a packed dance floor filled with cheers and squeals. After a week of adding, dropping, and desperately waitlisting classes, Wellesley students danced the stress away. 

Mallika Sunder ’27, an event attendee, explained her initial reaction, “So I walk in … Immediately it’s lit.” She described a fun experience with friends and “a good mix of popular music from a lot of different genres. You know, they had some dance music they played, like Troye Sivan, Charli XCX.” 

The DJ playing those songs, specifically “Rush” by Troye Sivan and “1999” by Charli XCX and Troye Sivan, was Sophia Wu ’27. Wu, a member of SBOG and music lover, contributed to the red channel which hosted student DJs. Similarly, the blue and green stations each had a DJ of their own. The DJs spent the night spinning songs carefully curated to entice and hype up the crowd. 

The abundance of DJs provided opportunities for listeners to choose music according to their taste, but also come together in moments of musical unity. Sunder noted “when you want to just do your own thing, you can.” Sometimes, the dance floor would be illuminated in a variety of colors. But other times, Wu observed, “There were definitely quite a few instances where it was just a sea of red. And people singing the same lyrics or doing the same dance moves.”  A memorable instance was when Wu played “HOT TO GO!” by Chappell Roan. The field became a chorus of red headphones and arms spelling out the viral choreography. 

SBOG and the DJs spent ample time preparing for the event’s many logistics. Sunder highlighted the event’s other features, like pizza and pictures with the famous SBOG Frog. Additionally, the music choices required careful consideration.

 “I like to think of it as a process,” Wu said about crafting the night’s playlist. “Before I actually started making the playlist, I put something out on social media. I was like, What kind of songs are you guys looking for? Like, what’s the vibe, what do you want to hear? And I got a lot of good feedback back, and I tried to go off of that.” 

Wu and SBOG’s hard work paid off, leading to a well-attended, upbeat event. Headphone Disco gave Wellesley students a chance to show off their skills in planning events and DJing music. The night was filled with joyful, dancing students. 

“Music is something that just has the ability to connect people and to be able to see that on campus during events — it‘s really special,” Wu said. 

Image Credit: Sophia Wu

Contact the editor(s) responsible for this story: Diya Khanna and Phoebe Rebhorn