Upon the recommendation of one among his soccer teammates, James Simon enrolled in 14.73 (The Problem of World Poverty) as a first-year pupil to satisfy a humanities requirement. He went from understanding nothing about economics to studying concerning the topic from Nobel laureates.
The teachings created by professors Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee revealed to Simon a completely new manner to make use of science to assist humanity. One of many tasks Simon discovered about on this class assessed an space of India with a low vaccination price and created a randomized, managed trial to determine the easiest way to repair this downside.
“What was actually cool concerning the class was that it talked about big issues on the earth, like poverty, starvation, and lack of vaccinations, and it talked about how you may break them down utilizing experiments and quantify the easiest way to unravel them,” he says.
Galvanized by this expertise, Simon joined a analysis challenge within the economics division and dedicated to a blended main in pc science, economics, and knowledge. He started engaged on a analysis challenge with Senior Lecturer Sara Ellison in 2021 and has since contributed to a number of analysis papers printed by the group, many regarding developmental financial points. One in every of his most memorable tasks explored the query of whether or not web entry helps bridge the hole between poor and rich international locations. Simon collected knowledge, performed interviews, and did statistical evaluation to develop solutions to the group’s questions. Their paper was printed in Competitors Coverage Worldwide in 2021.
Additional bridging his economics research with real-world efforts, Simon has change into concerned with the Guatemalan charity Venture Somos, which is devoted to difficult poverty by means of entry to meals and schooling. Via MIT’s World Analysis and Consulting Group, he led a crew of seven college students to investigate this system’s knowledge, measure its affect in the neighborhood, and supply the group with easy-to-use knowledge analytics instruments. He has continued working with Venture Somos by means of his undergraduate years and has joined its board of administrators.
Simon hopes to quantify the best approaches to options for the individuals and teams he works with. “The charity I work for says ‘Use your head and your coronary heart.’ For those who can method the issues on the earth with empathy and analytics, I believe that may be a actually necessary manner to assist lots of people” he says.
Simon’s want to positively affect his neighborhood is threaded by means of different areas of his life at MIT. He’s a member of the varsity soccer crew and the Phi Beta Epsilon fraternity, and has volunteered for the MIT Little Beavers Particular Wants Operating Membership.
On the sphere, court docket, and path
Athletics are a serious a part of Simon’s life, year-round. Soccer has lengthy been his principal sport; he joined the varsity soccer crew as a first-year and has performed ever since. In his second 12 months with the crew, Simon was acknowledged as an Tutorial All-American. He additionally earned the respect of NEWMAC First Staff All-Convention in 2021.
Regardless of the lengthy hours of apply, Simon says he’s most relaxed when it’s sport season. “It’s a pleasant, aggressive outlet to have each day. You’re working with individuals that you just like spending time with, to win video games and have enjoyable and apply to get higher. The whole lot happening form of fades away, and also you’re simply centered on enjoying your sport,” he explains.
Simon has additionally used his time at MIT to attempt new sports activities. In winter 2023, he joined the wrestling membership. “I assumed, ‘I’ve by no means carried out something like this earlier than. However possibly I’ll attempt it out,’” he says. “And so I attempted it out understanding nothing. They had been tremendous welcoming and there have been individuals with all expertise ranges, and I simply actually fell in love with it.” Simon additionally joined the MIT basketball crew as a walk-on his senior 12 months.
When not competing, Simon enjoys mountain climbing. He recollects one among his favourite reminiscences from the previous 4 years being a visit to Yosemite Nationwide Park he took with mates whereas interning in San Francisco. There, he hiked upward of 20 miles every day. Simon additionally embarks on mountain climbing journeys with mates nearer to campus in New Hampshire and Acadia Nationwide Park.
Social affect
Simon believes his philanthropic work has been pivotal to his expertise at MIT. Via the MIT World Analysis and Consulting Group, which he served as a case chief for, he has related with charity teams world wide, together with in Guatemala and South Africa.
On campus, Simon has labored to construct social connections inside each his faculty and city-wide neighborhood. Throughout his sophomore 12 months, he spent his Sundays with the Little Beavers Operating Staff, a program that pairs youngsters from the Boston space who’re on the autism spectrum with an MIT pupil to apply operating and different sports activities actions. “All through the course of a semester whenever you’re working with a child, you’re in a position to see their confidence and social expertise enhance. That’s actually rewarding to me,” Simon says.
Simon can also be a member of the Phi Beta Epsilon fraternity. He joined the group in his first 12 months at MIT and has lived with the opposite members of the fraternity since his sophomore 12 months. He appreciates the group’s sturdy deal with supporting the social {and professional} expertise of its members. Simon served because the chapter’s president for one semester and describes his expertise as “very impactful.”
“There’s one thing actually cool about having 40 of your folks all stay in a home collectively,” he says. “Numerous my good reminiscences from faculty are of sitting round in our frequent rooms late at evening and simply speaking about random stuff.”
Technical tasks and serving to others
Subsequent fall, Simon will proceed his research at MIT, pursuing a grasp’s diploma in economics. Following this, he plans to maneuver to New York to work in finance. In the summertime of 2023 he interned at BlackRock, a big finance firm, the place he labored on a crew that invested on behalf of individuals seeking to develop their retirement funds. Simon says, “I assumed it was cool that I used to be in a position to apply issues I discovered at school to have an effect on a ton of various individuals across the nation by serving to them put together for retirement.”
Simon has carried out related work in previous internships. In the summertime after his first 12 months at MIT, he labored for Surge Employment Options, a startup that related previously incarcerated individuals to jobs. His duty was to quantify the social impacts of the startup, which was proven to assist the unemployment price of previously incarcerated people and assist high-turnover companies lower your expenses by retaining staff.
On his neighborhood work, Simon says, “There’s at all times much more similarities between individuals than variations. So, I believe attending to know individuals and having the ability to use what I discovered to assist individuals make their lives even a bit bit higher is cool. You suppose possibly as a school pupil, you wouldn’t be capable of do quite a bit to make an affect world wide. However I believe even with simply the pc science and economics expertise that I’ve discovered in faculty, it’s at all times form of stunning to me how a lot of an affect you can also make on individuals if you happen to simply put within the effort to hunt out alternatives.”
