Emily Hrovat graduated from the College of Wooster in 2016 with a BA in Economics and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and was attracted to CSU Economics’ emphasis on feminist and other heterodox schools of economic thought. After graduating, she did two terms of service with AmeriCorps for College Possible, where she ran an after-school program for low-income first-generation high school seniors to guide them through the college application and financial aid process. This experience helped shape her interest in studying the intersections of economics with social and political forces. She wrote her undergraduate thesis on food insecurity in the LGBT+ community and the factors that influence not only food security status, but also an individual's decision to self-identify in a large-scale survey like the Census. Her current research explores the relationship between international trade and population dynamics; in particular, how the impact of import competition on employment has affected birth rates and incarceration in the U.S.