Economics is the pulse of modern civilization. The study of economics prepares students to play meaningful roles in improving the human condition by contributing to a healthy economic climate. Those two words provide a good bit of the answer to the title question.
Economists are scientists.
We design experiments, test hypotheses, make predictions, etc. As such, a good economist requires the same sort of skills needed by a good chemist or physicist. As social scientists, economists work in the laboratory of everyday human and organizational behavior. Our work takes us everywhere. We study the differences in wage rates earned in different occupations, the connection between the profit motive and the environment, the advantages and disadvantages of foreign trade, the causes and costs of inflation and unemployment, the effect of government regulations on health care, the rate of return on education, the impact of new technology on costs and prices, global opportunities and challenges that we will face in the new century, among many other topics.