Baseball outfielder and Co-Captain, Luke Smith ’22, was introduced to Haverford College after hearing Coach Dave Beccaria speak at a showcase. Luke was looking at small liberal arts schools with strong academics, intellectually curious students, and a well-established baseball team. During his campus tour and overnight visit with the team, he witnessed a tight-knit community of well-rounded students steeped with integrity. And, not being too far from his Fayetteville, NY home was ideal.

In high school Luke had taken a general interest in economics and psychology after taking foundation courses in both. Economics was analytical and practical, with broad applications, including decision making. He will matriculate with a major in economics and a minor in psychology.

The economics department has given Luke a home base for his course of study. Noting that the classes have built off of one another, he has fortified and further developed a variety of skills including delving into published papers, applying analytical methods, and interpreting data for his thesis.

For his thesis he “seek[s] to examine how experience, tenure (with a firm), and job security impact one's willingness to deviate from conventional wisdom. Depending on what an agent is trying to achieve, particular motivations may impact their decision to abandon commonly held strategies. This study examines a sample of 5,593 National Football League regular season and playoff games from 2000-2020, including 72,834 fourth down decisions. [He] use[s] a discrete choice model to estimate how coaching experience, tenure with a team, and job security impact the likelihood of a coach carrying out an offensive play on fourth down. [He] hope[s] any potential findings might provide insight into how experience and job security impact decision-making in the labor market in general.”

Although Covid generally stymied summer internship opportunities, in 2020 Luke secured a Business Development and Marketing internship at Fitness Forum Physical Therapy in Syracuse, NY. He researched marketing trends, developed marketing initiatives, and conducted competition analyses. This past summer he worked for Syracuse based JHS Management, housed in their Business Development division, where he performed financial projections and assisted with website development and marketing initiatives.

In addition to academics and playing on the varsity baseball team, Luke has served as the Liaison to the Office of Academic Resources on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, and he is the Student Representative on the Alumni Association Executive Committee. Luke assists economics Professors and fellow economics students in his roles as Peer Tutor and Teaching Assistant. He is also Co-Head and founding member of the Haverford Economics Club where he facilitates marketing and promotion of club activities and discussions.

Post-graduation, Luke plans on attending graduate school to pursue a Masters program in Finance or Management with long term goals of a career in Wealth Management.