the former directors here know well, every program is a startup when it moves from one university to another. while we started with a detailed plan for all five years, we did not know how everything would turn out and had to be open to experimentation and innovation. after the first year, it became obvious that the program needed a systematic advising component. armed with this intensive training in economics, the students still needed help planning next steps back at their home institutions and for the future. the second year, we instituted a mandatory advising session with a faculty administrator on the last day of the program. the students completed a survey with their educational objectives for the next two to three years, and we commented on them. this became a critical and 1 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches ongoing souvenir of the program. it has been heartwarming to see program alumni stick to these plans and execute them many years after leaving the aeasp. during the second year, we also realized how important machine learning was becoming to conducting research and to preparing for graduate study in economics. one august, after the program was over, we enrolled in a machine learning short course, learned more about the power of these tools, and incorporated it into the program the next summer. humility, agility, and being open to new ideas held us in good stead throughout the program in east lansing. second, outreach and recruiting efforts are very important. my own journey and that of many others are evidence that not everyone comes to the field of economics the same way. in our experience, it was helpful to find novel ways to broaden our reach. in addition to traditional outreach methods, we engaged social media, including going to where economists were - econtwitter - to introduce economics departments and interested students to the new program at msu, to provide general information, and to give updates on students, program activities, and alumni. there were several memorable social media events : two live social media sessions on different platforms, the instagram photo contest, and the " selfies with sue " [ dynarski ] sessions during our excursion to detroit and ann arbor. successful execution of a social - media strategy resulted in a more diverse applicant pool by type of educational institution and geographical location. third, anyone can be a mentor and influence the trajectory of a student or young scholar interested in economics. students spontaneously became peer mentors to each other, using time they could have used to do their own problem sets or study for

in our plans, will reinforce accommodation and make sure that inflation convergence develops strong foundations. but our mission is not yet accomplished. we need patience and persistence. we need to be patient, because inflation convergence needs more time to show through convincingly in the data. the euro area ’ s economic environment is improving, and the negative tail risks to inflation expectations, which were so visible at the start of our asset purchase program, have virtually disappeared. this strengthens our confidence that headline inflation will gradually move towards the governing council ’ s objective of below, but close to, 2 % over the medium term. but measured inflation remains exceedingly volatile and metrics of underlying price pressures continue to be subdued. the entire distribution of inflation expectations still needs to shift a fair distance to the right. we need to be persistent, because the baseline scenario for inflation going forward remains crucially contingent on very easy financing conditions which, to a large extent, depend on the current accommodative monetary policy stance. therefore, maintaining a steady hand continues to be critical to fostering a durable convergence of inflation toward our monetary policy aim. 1 see, for example, european commission, european economic forecast, spring 2017. 2 see, european commission, business and consumer survey results, june 2017. see the ecb ’ s euro area bank lending survey, april 2017, and the ecb ’ s survey on the access to finance of enterprises in the euro area, october 2016 to march 2017. for more details on the impact of the tltros, see “ the targeted longer - term refinancing operations : an overview of the take - up and their impact on bank intermediation ”, economic bulleting, issue 3, box 5, ecb, 2017. 5 see ecb ( 2017 ), “ assessing labour market slack ”, box 3, economic bulletin, issue 3. for further discussion, see “ recent wage trends in the euro area ”, economic bulletin, issue 3, box 2, ecb 2016. 3 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches