Mackenzie Rice

After making recruitment videos and spending hours online researching colleges and universities in the United States where she could major in economics and play golf, Mackenzie Rice narrowed her search to 50 institutions, including Towson University. “I connected right away with Coach Kate, and I knew I could be effective immediately on Towson University’s golf team,” says Rice, who lived in Canada until age 14, when she moved to Australia.

Rice has made her mark on the team and in the classroom at Towson University. As a freshman, she won accolades for her performance in a number of golf tournaments, and received the Mary Fyfe Chiswell Scholarship for academic performance from TU’s Department of Economics. “I am interested in how economic policy affects people in their everyday lives,” says Rice, whose global perspective reflects a childhood spent in three countries with very different cultural and political ideologies.

“ I am interested in how economic policy affects people in their everyday lives. ”

That perspective has served her well in her work with the Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI) on the TU campus. “I am getting lots of economic, policy and data analysis experience, which is a great fit with my major,” says Rice. RESI offers its analytic services to public, private and nonprofit organizations in the region and is a recognized leader on Maryland’s economy. “I have a special interest in environmental politics and how environmental issues influence the economy.”

Rice also has tutored athletes in statistics and math and has attended programs to develop leadership skills. “One of the things golf has taught me is how to make the best of a bad situation. It also teaches you to be okay with delayed gratification. Schoolwork may not pay off until later, but it is worth the extra work now.”