Senior Snapshots: All the Elements of success

By junior year, Greg Wiles, A&S '06, had taken full advantage of the opportunities for research on campus. He'd worked with the Center for Retirement Research, done an advanced study grant, and completed a readings and research course. Yet he saw that the University was missing an important element in its undergraduate research scene.

"I found over the course of [my work] there was no forum for that research to be shared with the Boston College community," says Wiles.

A forum was needed, but a student was also needed, someone to take the initiative and make the commitment to see it through. In September 2004, Wiles founded Elements, BC's first undergraduate research journal. With Wiles as its editor-in-chief and a staff of undergrads from all disciplines and years, Elements was an immediate success.

It was Wiles' dedication and aptitude that took Elements off the ground, says professor Mark O'Connor, the faculty sponsor of the journal and director of the Honors Program. "It needed someone of Greg's ability to organize and of his intelligence to make it a reality," he says.

But Elements has not been Wiles' only focus while at BC. He has also been a rower on the men's crew team and is its captain. "I basically say I'm a rower at BC, and I take some classes as well," he says. The Colorado native picked up the oars in the beginning of his freshman year, and kept with them. Since then, he's helped his team capture gold medals and championship races.

O'Connor recognizes his student's passion for rowing, commending him for being able to balance the sport with classwork and other activities. "It was just impressive that he would be able to do such high quality work that he did with the schedule he had," says O'Connor.

More recently, Wiles has been coaching a team of high school boys at the community rowing center three times a week. "I'm someone who has trouble not doing anything," says Wiles.

His four years at BC have proven that true. "I really think I did everything I could have and that I wanted to do and I'm very much ready to move on to what's next," he says. Moving on means moving down to New York, where, starting in July, Wiles will be working as an investment banking analyst for Citigroup. Before settling down for his job, however, he will be part of a 200-mile relay race in Vermont along with six of his fellow BC rowers to raise money for the Scott Laio Memorial Fund, in honor of their teammate who passed away last year.

Earlier this year, Wiles was named chief marshal of the Order of the Cross and Crown, the highest honor in the society, which is comprised of students in the College of Arts and Sciences who achieve an average of above an A-minus while demonstrating outstanding leadership and service on campus.

The economics major is dedicated to his education and to sharing it with others. Every semester since freshman year, he's taught an Economics and Basic Finance course to inmates at the Suffix House of Corrections. He's also distinguished himself by being part of group of economics majors who placed in a competition sponsored by the Federal Reserve.

Wiles loves the logic and reasoning of economics and recognizes its implications in wider world policy. He wants to eventually go into a policy-related area. Economics, he believes, provides the right framework for thinking and approaching problems.

"I feel a need to go out there and try to have an impact on policy in some way," he says. "I feel as a Boston College student, with the motto of serving others, that it's kind of an obligation to go out there and know that you work and help make policy, make decisions that will affect people's lives for the better."