Role Models

        My name is Rachael and I am a Research Assistant at the
Federal Reserve Board of Governors.  My specific duties include preparing
charts, tables, and graphs for the weekly Board briefings and for the
pre-Federal Open Market Committee (pre-FOMC) meetings.  I also prepare
programs to manipulate data for the charts and tables I create.  

        To get this job, I received a Bachelor's in Economics and had some 
computer experience (but it was minimal compared to what I know now.)  I
also took math clases and statistics as well as econometrics.

        My comments would be to encourage girls (regardless of what career
they are considering) to take some kind of programming class because
computers are becoming so essential that you are at an extreme disadvantage
if you are computer illiterate.  In my job, in particular, I work only with 
the computer.  It's also important to have some kind of math/econ background
and an understanding of econometrics is a BIG plus.