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TX-23 congressional candidate John Lira said he is running to continue his passion for public service. He faces Republican incumbent Congressman Tony Gonzalez, who currently ranks 92 percent favorability with the National Rifle Association.

Notably, Uvalde, Texas, falls in the 23rd district with a 69 percent Hispanic population. And more eyes are on the congressional race than before, in light of the Uvalde shooting marked as the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history.

Republicans across the state and the country blamed the rise in violence on mental health, video games, drag queens, rap music and more to deflect from consistently bowing down to NRA leaders and gun manufacturers.

Lira said Gonzalezs nay vote against the most recent congressional gun safety legislation puts him on the wrong side of history.

Still, Lira said he would have voted to support the Protecting Our Kids Act but wished it included provisions on school safety and mental health.

Im not ready to say that I support an all-out assault weapons ban necessarily, Lira told the Signal. But I want it to be severely restricted to those who have proven capable, mature enough, and have some sort of level of need for this weapon. But if there were an assault weapons ban in a session that I could look at, I would strongly consider it.

In reality, the emphasis on legislation and implementation of red flag laws, universal background checks, banning high capacity magazines, and more lose the essence of the conversation on why these weapons are necessary to the average law-abiding citizen in the first place.

According to Lira, he understands firsthand the sense of power behind a powerful firearm as a former Marine but doesnt understand the need for semi-automatic weapons besides marksmanship and sport.

The folks that say its for hunting are the same folks that might argue they need dynamite to fish, Lira said. I dont buy it. These are strictly for sport and kind of prestige in [many] ways. Its part of the gun iconology thats deeply rooted here in Texas. They are essentially pieces to have versus functional pieces to use.

Even with his experience as a former marine handling semi-automatic firearms, Lira said the nuisance of gun culture and Americas normalization of violence led him to question his own gun ownership away from the battlefield.

Now, with so many states allowing for the unfettered carry of a firearm anywhere in public, people are all on edge, Lira said. I never used to want to have a need for a firearm. Now I feel like I dont want to be the only fool without one if anything ever happens. I almost feel compelled to carry one.

Shortly after conflicting reports from the police showed officers waited outside for 78 minutes while the gunman barricaded himself in the 4th-grade classroom, the Uvalde Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety have been hesitant to release certain documents, according to reports by ProPublica.

Lira said that more rural communities like Uvalde are also vulnerable across the 23rd congressional district and called the Uvalde police response disappointing.

I never like to bad mouth the police, but in this case, I think they failed to live up to those expectations, he said. There are even more vulnerable and less equipped and less trained police forces spread all across my district, and what about them. Its really scary.

Grieving Uvalde families are still trying to piece together their new reality. But the lack of transparency from Texas law enforcement agencies and hesitation to release information in the ongoing investigation most likely pours salt into an already open wound.

Nevertheless, Lira said the Texas government owes the Uvalde family some compensation.

I think their [Uvalde police] actions and delayed actions or inactions directly led to increased carnage for some of these families, he said.

In addition to speaking out on gun reform, the congressional candidate who describes himself as a moderate Democrat and devout Catholic said he also defines himself politically as pro-choice.

Im proudly a pro-choice candidate, and this stems from me being a father and I have four nieces, Lira said. I want every healthcare option to be accessible and available to them as far as incorporating it in a healthy and balanced medical service that is part of a slate of services offered through the Affordable Care Act. Absolutely. These are important to women.

According to his campaign website, Lira is also campaigning on decriminalizing and legalizing marijuana, liveable wages, labor unions, veterans, immigration reform, and more.

I think in a lot of ways being a moderate, especially here in Texas, can be very valuable, he said. I think in this district specifically, a moderate is what theyre looking for. Im not bending toward the district in a lot of ways. This is who I am.

Election day for this race is Nov. 8, 2022.

Here is the original post:
John Lira on His Run for Congress in TX-23 - The Texas Signal

The stubborn problem of labor shortages has Colorado businesses looking at older workers who retired or lost their jobs during the pandemic and want back in the workforce and at changes in immigration policies that could help fill positions.

Large numbers of people voluntarily leaving their jobs as the pandemic wore on last year spurred national discussions of the so-called Great Resignation. Its also been called the Great Renegotiation or Great Reshuffling as people quit jobs for higher wages and better working conditions.

The labor shortage issue is still persistent and real, said Brian Lewandowski, executive director of the Business Research Division in the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

For every unemployed person, there are nearly two job openings nationwide. At the end of April, the number of open jobs fell slightly to 11.4 million from 11.5 million, which was the highest rate since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking the number in 2000.

The number of people who voluntarily left their jobs in April stayed about the same at 4.4 million nationwide for a quit rate of 2.9%. The latest data available shows 3.5% of workers in Colorado quit their jobs in March while 3.0% did nationally.

Workforce shortages, talent shortages were a pretty big issue before COVID-19, so the issue of talent shortages is a crisis now, said Debbie Brown, president of the Colorado Business Roundtable.

The roundtable, which represents CEOs and executives of Colorado businesses, had a recent panel discussion focusing on changes in immigration policy as one avenue for filling job openings.

Janine Vanderburg sees the tight labor market as a potential boost for her work on dealing with ageism and advancing opportunities for older Americans. Vanderburg, director of Colorado-based Changing the Narrative, said many older workers didnt just decide to retire when the pandemic hit, but were laid off or encouraged to quit when companies scaled back during the recession.

Theres this myth going around that theres been this Great Retirement and all of us who are boomers age decided to quit and were off on cruises, living off 401(k)s, Vanderburg said.

A large portion of the retirements since March 2020 happened after periods of unemployment, indicating people didnt voluntarily retire, according to a report by the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis at The New School.

Employers have asked Vanderburg to talk at workshops about finding older workers. I really feel like weve got this incredible opportunity to change the way employers view older workers, she said.

Business people who advocate common sense changes to the countrys immigration policies hope the need for workers will prompt movement on the divisive issue that gets a lot of back and forth but little action.

Weve had a multi-year grant for looking at immigration through a business and workforce lens, Brown said. What Ive seen the last couple of years is much more of a willingness to talk about practical solutions that can help meet workforce challenges, not just in agriculture and seasonal jobs but also in high-skill jobs and in long-term solutions for immigration.

Dane Linn, a senior vice president with the national Business Roundtable, said during the recent panel discussion that business leaders want to see comprehensive immigration reform. For now, they are talking to members of Congress and the administration about smaller measures that might gain bipartisan support.

The roundtable has concentrated on finding a permanent solution for the Dreamers, immigrants brought to the U.S. as children whose status has been subject to court challenges and changes as administrations have changed. The organization also backs protecting refugees and removing barriers for foreign students and immigrants in high-skill fields.

There is a real problem with the talent supply, Linn said. Why wouldnt we want to keep that talent here?

Eric Lutzens, The Denver Post

Lloyd Lewis, president and CEO of Arc Thrift Stores said hell leave the details of the policy changes to others. His position is simple, he said.

We have 11 million open jobs and millions of people who want to work for us. It seems like we could come up with a reasonable way to make that happen, Lewis said.

ARC Thrift Stores, in business since 1968, employs more than 1,600 people, has 31 stores across Colorado and plans to add more. Like other places, the stores have job openings.

Were not exactly having the Great Resignation, but its just been tougher, Lewis said.

ARC prides itself on the diversity of its workforce, he added. Its net funding supports 15 advocacy programs that help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The business employs about 400 people with disabilities as well as immigrants and refugees from Afghanistan and other countries.

Lewis said about 10% of the employees are older than 65.

If you dont come up with reasonable immigration reform and reasonable policies, youre denying the talent pool that can help your company and help your community, Lewis said. And it just brings a real strength to the company to have different age groups, different ethnicities, different backgrounds.

Even as Colorado businesses are having a tough time filling jobs, the number of jobs and the number of people participating in the workforce are growing. In April, Colorado had the third-highest labor force participation in the nation at 69.1%, Lewandowski said.

The rate is calculated using the number of people employed or looking for a job divided by the working-age population.

Colorado has come back stronger and faster than I believed it would, Lewandowski said.

In fact, Colorado is just one of 14 states to exceed its pre-recession job levels. The state lost 375,200 jobs from February to April 2020, but added 389,400 jobs from May 2020 through March of this year. The labor force was 3.2 million in April.

At the same time, Colorado is 11th in the country for the number of people voluntarily quitting their jobs. The states unemployment rate was 3.6% in April.

Were doing better in terms of labor force growth and labor force participation than many other states, Lewandowski said. But these businesses are still telling us that they need more. I think that goes to the demand side of business.

Eric Lutzens, The Denver Post

Lisa Jensen has a ready response when employers say they have openings they cant fill.

What I tell them is that the workers they are looking for are in their inbox. The workers are knocking on their doors, said Jensen, program manager at the Workforce Boulder County center.

One of the hurdles older job-seekers face is the screening processes companies use that Jensen said key into certain phrases and words.

If the words dont match, the resume basically goes into the trash can. Older workers are not really tuned into this, Jensen said. We think the employer wants to know everything about our work history and all the different kinds of work weve done.

Jensen works with people on writing and resumes and with employers on writing job notices that dont inadvertently screen out older workers. She collaborated with Vanderburg of Changing the Narrative on a recent workshop for older job-seekers. More than 200 people signed up.

Jensen knows a little about the travails of being an older person trying to find a job. She worked for several years at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. She was working on a pilot program that helped people in the community find jobs at Anschutz when COVID-19 hit and she was laid off.

I became one of those older workers trying to navigate the new world of job seeking, Jensen said.

It took a year and two months and more than 70 applications to land her current position.

After years in human resources, Cindy Hamilton opened her own firm, Denver Staffing Services, to help small businesses recruit workers with a focus on construction and the trades. Lately, she has been getting requests for older job applicants.

And the reason for that is dependability and life experience, Hamilton said.

One of the companies was looking for an office manager who could handle a lot of different tasks. Some of these roles are not just the same thing every day. If youre working in a small office and youre the only administrative assistant, youre going to be handling everything, Hamilton said.

Hamilton sees flexibility in hours and other requirements as key to attracting older workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic and recession or retired and are returning to work out of financial necessity. When it comes to the workplace, Hamilton echoed others in saying that its still a sellers market.

What I find is theres a lot of need for labor. I get very few applications, she said. Ive seen many cycles, but this is one of the worst cycles as far as being able to find applicants.

Continued here:
Colorado businesses have a hiring problem. Leaders are turning to older workers, immigrants as solutions - The Denver Post

LOS ANGELES (Border Report) Immigration advocates have taken to the streets outside the Summit of the Americas demanding immigration reform.

On Wednesday and Thursday, they walked along Figueroa Street in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center where the event is taking place this week.

They chanted, Biden escucha, estamos en la lucha. It doesnt rhyme in English but it means, Biden listen, were in this struggle.

Biden made that promise to all the people thats why he is there, he is in the capital, we need to do something, said Juan Hernandez, one of the demonstrators.

Hernandez emphasized he and other demonstrators were seeking immigration reform for those who are migrating to the United States in the future and for migrants already here.

Many people dont understand, its a lot of people that are already here that dont have papers, dont have immigration status, DACA and all that, said Hernandez. Its not just people coming, its people that are already here that want a better life.

Hernandez told Border Report the time to create immigration reform is now, at the summit, because President Biden and most leaders from throughout the Western Hemisphere are at the event.

Thats why were here telling Biden we need immigration reform, he said.

The White House has indicated that Biden will make a declaration, with support from other countries, on immigration this Friday during the last day of the summit.

Critics of the president say an agreement is highly unlikely since the leaders of Mexico and the Northern Triangle, which includes El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua arent attending the summit.

The four countries have sent representatives to the event. In Mexicos case, it sent Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.

Originally posted here:
Protesters demand immigration reform at Summit of the Americas - Border Report

Long before Leah Boustan was a professor of economics at Princeton, she was a Princeton undergraduate putting the final touches on her senior thesis.

Working alongside her adviser, longtime professor Henry Hank Farber, Boustan published a 100-page research project that compared outcomes for students who dropped out of high school in the early 1960s with those who dropped out decades later.

"I cant remember the exact moment I decided to become an economic historian, but I remember telling Hank I was really interested in comparisons of cohorts over time," Boustan said. "That interest is the basis for a lot of my work even today."

Twenty-two years after graduating from Princeton, Boustan has published a book that uses troves of data and the latest innovations in data science to examine an issue Boustan considers "one of the most fraught issues in U.S. politics" both today and in the past: immigration.

Leah Boustan as a Princeton undergraduate with her father, Harlan Platt

Photo courtesy of Leah Boustan

Written with her longtime collaborator Ran Abramitzky of Stanford University, Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success introduces the public to more than a decade of her rigorous, empirical research on the personal and society-wide impacts of immigration.

Weaving together personal family stories including their own with insights from the data, Boustan and Abramitzky tell an uplifting story about the promise of immigration. One finding Boustan found particularly surprising is how well children of immigrants have done economically, both today and in the past.

The fact that children of immigrants who came from poor families in the 1980s moved up the economic ladder at the same pace as children of the Ellis Island generation that floored me," said Boustan.

One hundred years ago, Italy a major sending country of immigrants to the U.S. had about half the GDP per capita of the United States. Once in America, however, the sons of Italian immigrants rose up. Those who grew up in the 25th percentile of income distribution in the late 1800s earned enough as adults to be near the 60th percentile.

Today, children of immigrants from Nicaragua, which has about one-tenth the GDP per capita of the United States, see similar rates of economic mobility.

"Theres no reason that has to be true but it turned out to be," Boustan said. "It's something really remarkable we're able to see because of the data."

That data and the methodologies Boustan and Abramitzky developed to make use of it deserve almost as much attention as the findings.

In addition to working with and linking modern data like IRS tax records and birth certificate files, a partnership with the genealogy website Ancestry.com made it possible for Boustan and Abramitzky to automate searches and follow millions of families over more than 100 years of Census data. From there, they worked with audio recordings of historical interviews and congressional speeches, using machine-learning tools to analyze these texts and glean big-data insights.

The rigor of the research is one reason it's so groundbreaking, and a tradition Boustan can trace to her days as a Princeton undergraduate.

As a high school debate student interested in public policy, Boustan applied early decision to Princeton with the aim of declaring a concentration at the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). But her time learning from Professor Farber changed her mind.

"I took economics classes in order to major in SPIA, she said. One of those classes was ECO 313: Applied Econometrics with Hank Farber, where we used real data sets to answer questions. I fell in love with that class."

Boustan told Farber she wanted to spend a summer working in Washington, but he persuaded her to stay in Princeton instead to learn more about data analysis and to see how building expertise in a discipline like economics could help her produce the kind of policy-relevant work that legislators really need.

"So thats what I did, and I never really looked back," she said.

Boustan declared Economics as her concentration at Princeton and started spending her free time in the computer lab of the Industrial Relations (IR) Section a group widely known for training and supporting some of the most famous labor economists and empiricists in the field, including 2021 Nobel Laureates and Princeton alumni David Card and Joshua Angrist.

From there, she went on to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. After several years teaching at the University of California Los Angeles, Boustan returned to Princeton in 2017.

As Boustan hits the road to talk about her new book, she's able to marvel at how things have come full circle. When Farber signed on as Boustan's undergraduate senior thesis advisor, he was the director of the IR Section. Last year, Boustan herself was given the title, an honor she doesn't take for granted.

The IR Section is a true intellectual community, she said. The faculty sit right beside the graduate students almost like in a lab and work closely together. And the research coming out of the Section is always connected to the real world, from minimum wage to unemployment to the immigration work that I have been doing.

For Farber, who says Boustan was one of the best undergraduate students he had the pleasure of teaching in his 30 years at Princeton, having Boustan as a colleague has been a source of some pride.

Farber also noted how Boustan, no longer the student, has herself excelled in role of advisor. Leah has really played a key role in guiding the IR Section not only on the research side, but on the teaching side as well, he said.

In addition to committing her time as an advisor to dozens of undergraduate and graduate students, Boustan recently took on the task of teaching Princetons Principles of Microeconomics course a popular class for undergraduates across a wide range of majors.

I taught that class for many years myself, said Farber. It was wonderful to see Leah make it her own and take it in a whole new direction. The reaction from students this year was very positive.

Boustan says her research and her role as an economic historian give her hope for the future of immigration policy.

Sometimes we feel so stuck. We feel polarized. Congress cant pass legislation. On immigration, weve been at a stalemate for 50 years. But you look at history, and you see weve had wild change. It reminds me Im living in one small moment in history.I think economic history helps us recognize the possibility of scope for change.

Specifically, she hopes much-needed policy change will come for the Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. "Our research shows the most optimistic vision of what the children of immigrants can achieve," she said.

Because it can take 30 to 40 years to follow children into the labor market, her research on modern immigration focuses on children born in the 1980s. These children lived in households who benefited from immigration amnesty programs during the Reagan administration. Boustan worries that studies of more recent immigrant arrivals many of whom are undocumented without any path to citizenship could produce less optimistic findings.

"Im worried about the next generation and what I'll find when we write Streets of Gold 2.0," she said. "Theres lots of promise for children of immigrants if they and their parents have some pathway into the formal labor market. I think its urgent to pass DACA as legislation and really return to the idea of comprehensive immigration reform."

Readers interested in learning more can read about five immigration myths dispelled in "Streets of Gold." This Thursday, June 9, at 8:30 p.m. ET, Professor Boustan will answer questions about her research in a Twitter Spaces event with Joey Politano, author of the Apricitas Economics blog. Join the event.

More here:
Modern immigrants' children have climbed the economic ladder as fast as the Ellis Island generation - Princeton University

At commencement this Sunday, Dartmouth will recognize 20 undergraduate members of the Class of 2022 who have earned top academic honors in their class.

Each of the 13 valedictorians earned a cumulative 4.0 grade point average across their Dartmouth careers. These include Melissa Barales-Lopez, Clayton Bass, Keara Dennehy, Ana Julia dos Santos Furtado, Archita Nitya Harathi, Aaron Lin Lee, Mien Nguyen, Max Ashok Pumilia, Matthew Roth, Kristina Strommer, Kimberly Tan, Victor Wu, and Jason Zavras.

A committee representing the dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and the dean of the College selected Barales-Lopez to deliver the valedictory address to the Class of 2022.

These outstanding student-scholars exemplify the depth and scope of the liberal arts, saysElizabeth Smith, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences. On behalf of the faculty, I congratulate them on all that they have achieved at Dartmouth and wish them the best in all their future pursuits.

This years salutatorians, who each earned at least a 3.99 grade point average, include Twisha Bhardwaj, Matthew Gannon, Zachary LaPorte, Sophia Miller, Connor Morris, Ian Stiehl, and Andrew White.

Valedictorians

Melissa Barales-LopezEast Los Angeles, Calif.Government and Spanish double major; Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies minor; Phi Beta Kappa

The former co-director of the Coalition for Immigration Reform and Equality at Dartmouth (CoFIRED), Barales-Lopez says she hopes one day to practice labor law.

Barales-Lopez was community outreach director at the Golden Heights Project, which provides civic education to young children from underserved Los Angeles neighborhoods, a mentor for theFirst Year Student Enrichment Program, and an ambassador for College Match, which supports low-income students with the college application process. In 2019 she received the Katherine B. Brock Prize for her service to the Dartmouth community.

She served as a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar, a Politics and Law research assistant, an associate at the Novack Caf, and an academic tutor for Government 10all while earning four citations for outstanding achievement in her classes and finding time to enjoy cycling, running, and photography.

She also interned with the global investment firm D.E. Shaw, the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, and Solar United Neighbors, and was a policy fellow at the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California and a litigation legal assistant at Davis Polk and Wardwell LLC.

After graduation Barales-Lopez plans to return to D.E. Shaw as a legal and compliance analyst while applying to law school.

Clayton BassHarrison, N.Y.Mathematical Data Science major; Phi Beta Kappa

Bass says his primary academic interest is in predictive gamesapplying machine learning to finance, sports, and business decision-making. He also is passionate about how data science can help inform medical decisions.

As a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar with Assistant Professor of Computer ScienceSoroush Vosoughi, he developed machine-learning models to predict NFL games. He was an early inductee into Phi Beta Kappa and received 10 citations for outstanding performance in his coursework.

Among his Dartmouth activities, he was fundraising project leader forThe Dartmouthstudent newspapers business development staff, for which he won a business development award. He was also treasurer for the Dartmouth Mathematical Society, a member of the club squash team and Beta Alpha Omega fraternity, and a business development member of theAegisyearbook staff.

He interned at the hedge funds WorldQuant and Point72. After graduation, Bass will return to Point72 in New York City as a data scientist/quantitative analyst.

Keara DennehySimsbury, Conn.Geography major; Psychology minor; Phi Beta Kappa

Dennehy is interested in using data science to analyze resource distribution in urban spaces, with a focus on how environmental hazards and social inequities impact residents mental and physical well-being.

As a research assistant on three projects in environmental studies and geography, one for which she was a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar, she has built geographic information system databases of rice paddies in the Dominican Republic, analyzed gender representation and other measures of equity in humanitarian health evidence, and analyzed census data to calculate neighborhood racial change throughout the United States. She has earned six citations for excellence in her coursework.

Among her Dartmouth activities, she was a tutor at theRWIT peer writing centerand chair of RWITs inclusivity development committee. She also led a Dartmouth Outing Club first-year trip, mentored a younger student through SIBs, and served as assistant stage manager for several theater productions.

She has interned with The Nature Conservancy and TomTom, where she plans to work as a business analyst before pursuing a masters degree in GIS, urban planning, or geography.

Ana Julia dos Santos FurtadoSanta Rita do Passa Quatro, BrazilHispanic Studies major; Phi Beta Kappa

An undergraduate fellow and scholar withDartmouths Race, Migration, and Sexuality Consortium, Furtado conducted independent research under the supervision of Associate Professor of EnglishKimberly Juanita Browninto the cultural interplay between alimentary politics and nationalist projects of whiteness during the First Brazilian Republic.

As a Human Development Fellow, she conducted research with Associate Professor of AnthropologyMaron Greenleafon forest protection and carbon evaluation in the Brazilian Amazon, and helped Associate Professor of Spanish and PortugueseIsrael Reyescreate a syllabus for a course on Boricuan identity.

She was co-president of the Dartmouth Brazilian Society, programming coordinator and chair for the Visibility 2020 and 2021 Campaign, and student adviser for the women and gender program at the Office of Pluralism and Leadership. She also worked on theHistorical Accountability Project, participated in a foreign study program in Buenos Aires, served as a Spanish and Portuguese teaching assistant and drill instructor, and worked throughout all four years for Dartmouth Dining Services.

She received funding from theJohn Sloan Dickey Center for International Understandingto intern with the Launch Gurls and Global G.L.O.W; from theNeukom Institute for Computational Scienceto assist Neukom FellowJeremy Mikeczon a project reconceptualizing the early Indigenous experience after the Spanish invasion; and from theLeslie Center for the Humanitiesto explore the perpetuation of colonial violence on contemporary Brazilian sugar plantations.

Before graduate school, Furtado plans to spend a year working as a humanities research assistant or to return to Brazil to teach at the Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes.

Archita Nitya HarathiPortland, Ore.Mathematics and Economics double major; Computer Science minor; Phi Beta Kappa

Harathi cites development and educational economics, mathematical biology and evolutionary dynamics, machine learning, and law among her academic interests.

She received aJack Byrne Scholarshipto conduct research in mathematics throughout her time at Dartmouth. She was a UI/UX Designer and a Neukom Scholar at theDartmouth Applied Learning and Innovation Laband completed a presidential scholarship as a research assistant forNina Pavcnik, the Niehaus Family Professor in International Studies and a professor of economics. This past year, she joined her Economics 70 class on a winterim trip to Chile.

Among her Dartmouth activities, Harathi has been a member of The Sings a capella group and was a finalist in the Dartmouth Idol Competition. She is on the Raaz dance team and has taught Indian classical dance to local children in Hanover. She played on the womens club basketball team and the Dartmouth running team. She is also a member of the Palaeopitus Senior Society and the Shanti Hindu Society and served as a team captain of the Mock Trial Society, president of the Dartmouth Math Society, and risk management chair for her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma.

After graduation, Harathi will be joining Goldman Sachs as an investment banking analyst.

Aaron Lin LeeBerwyn, Pa.Mathematics and Economics double major; Computer Science minor; Phi Beta Kappa

Lees academic interests in pure math, macroeconomics, game theory, statistics, and machine learning converge around the theme of trust, he says. How can we ensure that our research findings are as robust and understandable as possible, especially when the models we use are difficult to interpret?

As a section editor and member ofThe Dartmouthdirectorate, he was responsible for data journalism and surveys, writing numerous stories covering student opinions on politics and College administrative decisions, among other topics.

A pianist who studied with Professor of MusicSally Pinkasthrough the music departmentsIndividual Instruction Program, Lee played with theDartmouth College Wind Ensembleand performed large-scale works by Stravinsky, Beethoven, and Ravel at a solo senior recital this spring.

He alsoaccumulated 15 citations across seven different departments.

He has completed internships with Amazon, Chubb, and Jane Street. After graduation, he plans to move to New York City as a full-time quant trader at Five Rings Capital.

Mien Josephine NguyenQuang Yen, VietnamComputer Science major; Phi Beta Kappa

During her Dartmouth career, Nguyen served as an ambassador for the Office of Pluralism and Leadership, working on projects to promote diversity and inclusion at Dartmouth and facilitating discussions about identity and social justice for various student organizations on campus. In addition, she was a teaching assistant and section leader for several computer sciences courses, and she was a peer tutor for Computer Science 1 with theAcademic Skills Center. She was also a research assistant working with Professor of LinguisticsJames Stanfordto process audio transcripts in Cantonese and visualize the relationships between tone mergers and the speakers various social factors, such as gender, age, and location.

Nguyen has earned numerous citations for excellence in her coursework in computer science and music and interned for two summers with Bloomberg LP working in software engineering and development. After graduation, she plans to join Bloomberg full-time as a software engineer.

Max Ashok PumiliaDenver, Colo.Religion and History modified with Medieval and Renaissance Studies double major; Phi Beta Kappa

With an interest in medieval Islamic history, Pumilia researched the Shiite Muslim sect known as the Ismailis, which developed in the 9th century, as a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar and completed a senior honors thesis titled Navigating Errancy: Ismaili Perspectives onDhimmisfrom the Fatimid Revolution to the Fall of Alamut.

As a sophomore research scholar, he studied the development of the middle class in modern South Asia. He was a member of the Dartmouth Undergraduate Research Association executive board, participated in several club and intramural sports, and served as president of his fraternity, Kappa Pi Kappa (formerly Tri-Kap).

He has interned with a national golf company and spent summers with a small investment fund and a small private equity shop, both based in Denver. Last summer he interned at Bain & Company in New York and will be joining their San Francisco office after graduation.

Matthew RothWilmette, Ill.Computer Science major; Phi Beta Kappa

With an interest in computer science, history, and economics, Roth has interned in business development with TripActions and business operations with Salsify. The summer after his junior year, he was a software development intern at Amazon.

Inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Roth has earned citations for academic excellence in his economics, physics, and computer science courses. He served as a teaching assistant in computer science.

Among his other Dartmouth activities, Roth played on the club baseball team and was a member of the Gamma Delta Chi fraternity.

He plans to join Amazon as a software engineer.

Kristina StrommerPortland, Ore.Spanish and Intercultural Rhetoric double major; Phi Beta Kappa

An aspiring attorney, Strommer is interested in immigration advocacy as well as Spanish literature, communications, and rhetoric.

She has earned eight citations for excellence in her coursework.

Among her Dartmouth activities, she was part of FUERZA Farmworkers Fund, a member of Chi Delta Sorority, a ski instructor, an admissions tour guide, a student assistant in the Dartmouth Library, an administrative assistant in the Student Employment Office, and a volunteer with Dartmouth Feeding Neighbors.

She completed a legal internship the Oregon-based Bend Immigration Group, as well as communications and marketing internships with the World Forestry Center, Little Love Organics, Arendt Consulting, and Kimberly Park Communications.

Before law school, Strommer plans to live in Yakutat, Alaska, and continue working remotely for Kimberly Park Communications.

Kimberly TanSingaporeEngineering Sciences and Philosophy modified with Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages double major; Phi Beta Kappa

With academic interests in mechanical engineering, physics, and Western and Chinese philosophical traditions, Tan received undergraduate research funding for leave-term research into the May Fourth Movement in China, where she investigated the relationship of Confucianism to modernity and the influence of American Pragmatism on Chinese thought. She also received funding from UGAR and a Neukom Institute CompX grant to research quantum music with Eleanor and A. Kelvin Smith Distinguished Professor in PhysicsMiles Blencowe.

Her faith communitiesincluding the Agape Christian Fellowship, the Christian Union (of which she was co-president), Edgerton House Episcopal Campus Ministry, and Daily Prayer Grouphave made up a large part of her Dartmouth experience, as has music. A violinist, she served as concertmaster and performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto as a soloist with theDartmouth Symphony Orchestra.

She won the Marcus Heiman-Martin R. Rosenthal 56 Award for her contributions to the DSO, Best Overall Performance in the 2022 Culley Concerto Competition, and the Macdonald-Smith Prize for her achievements in musical performance. She has served as treasurer and executive team member of Musical Empowerment of the Upper Valley and was a trip leader for the Dartmouth Outing Club first-year trips.

In 2019, Tan participated in the language study abroad program in Beijing. In the fall, as a Yenching Scholar, she will pursue a masters degree in China studies with a concentration in philosophy and religion at the Yenching Academy of Peking University.

Victor WuHercules, Calif.Government, Environmental Studies, and Quantitative Social Science triple major; Phi Beta Kappa

Wu, who will attend Stanford Law School this fall, plans to pursue a PhD in political science in addition to a JD, with the goal of becoming a law professor.

At Dartmouth, he coauthored publications on economic mobility and on correcting climate and COVID-19 misinformation. He earned high honors and the Downey Family Prize in Environmental Studies for his honors thesis exploring community choice aggregationsprograms that allow local governments to procure energy on behalf of their residents. He also received the Stamps Scholarship for a two-year research project on hydropower development in the Mekong River.

A member of the Dartmouth triathlon team who competed in the 2021 Olympic-Distance Triathlon National Championships, Wu says the sportwhich requires hours of training in the outdoorshas inspired his passion for the environment. And his experience as a policy debater, most recently with the Dartmouth Forensics Union, has helped him focused his interest on environmental policy and law. He participated in the fall 2021 environmental studies off-campus program, studying community-based natural resource management throughout New England.

Wu has completed internships with the Environmental Law Institute and the U.S. Department of Justices Natural Resources Division as well as the Dartmouth Sustainability Office and Bright Line Watch. Wu also participated in theRockefeller Center for Public PolicysGlobal Leadership and Management and Leadership Development programs.

Jason ZavrasDover, Mass.Quantitative Social Science and Biochemistry double major; Phi Beta Kappa

Zavras, who says his academic interests lie at the intersection of health, technological innovation, and economic policy, plans to work with a gene therapy research group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University while applying to graduate programs.

He received aStamps Scholarshipto study the impact of economic recessions on population health outcomes, and was also a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar. His honors thesis in quantitative social science focused on the social determinants of health.

He worked as an analyst at ClearView Healthcare Partners, as machine learning project leader at the Dartmouth Health EDIT Group, and as a technician in the Dartmouth Health ophthalmology clinic. He was also vice president of Psi Upsilon fraternity, a Class of 2022 senator, a member of Dartmouth Emergency Services, and a participant in the Dartmouth Cancer Scholars Program.

The salutatorians of the Class of 2022 also assembled for a group photo on Saturday. From left are Ian Stiehl, Andrew White, Twisha Bhardwaj, Sophia Miller, Zachary LaPorte, and Matthew Gannon. Not pictured is Connor Morris. (Photo by Eli Burakian 00)

Salutatorians

Twisha BhardwajHershey, Pa.Neuroscience major; Government minor; Phi Beta Kappa

At Dartmouth, Bhardwaj has been able to explore her academic interests at the intersection of medicine, ethics, and law. She co-founded and served as president of Dartmouth Generations, an organization connecting undergraduates with older adults in the Upper Valley.

As a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar, Bhardwaj pursued research with Visiting Associate ProfessorRobert Santulliin the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. She designed an independent project examining attitudes toward dementia patient participation in nontherapeutic research. Her findings contributed to theDartmouth Dementia Directive, an advance care document that helps individuals indicate their care preferences should they develop dementia.

Further, she completed research internships at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Penn Memory Center and received the Eichler Fellowship for Health Care Leaders through theDartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

Bhardwaj has also served as a student leader for Dartmouth Healths Aging Resource Center, a volunteer for the Patient Support Corps, a co-coordinator and executive committee member for the Nathan Smith Society, a study group leader for neuroscience and biology coursework, and a youth mentor through theDartmouth Center for Social Impact.

After graduation, Bhardwaj plans to work as a research assistant within the Harvard Aging Brain Study at the Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston while applying to medical school.

Matthew GannonBethesda, Md.Film and Media Studies major modified with Sociology; English minor; Phi Beta Kappa

A documentary filmmaker whose workshown at a dozen film festivalsseeks to destigmatize people experiencing homelessness and incarceration, Gannon has received a Marshall Scholarship to pursue masters degrees in sociology and film directing at the University of Manchester and the University of Edinburgh, respectively.

My multimedia advocacy has focused on repealing unjust prison policies, reforming police practices, and ending the criminalization of homelessness, he says.

He has interned with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and Street Sense Media and was named a John Robert Lewis Scholar by the Washington-based Faith and Politics Institute.

At Dartmouth he was a sociology research assistant and served as a teaching assistant in three film and media studies courses. He also received funding from the Leslie Center for the Humanities, the Ethics Institute, and Dartmouth Partners in Community Service. He earned nine citations for excellence in his coursework and received the Maurice H. Rapf Award in film studies and the Andrew G. Truxal Memorial Award in sociology.

Among his other Dartmouth activities, he was vice president of the Dartmouth Cords a cappella group, a member of the Dog Day Players improv group, and a volunteer for DOC first-year trips.

Zachary LaPorteBaltimore, Md.Mathematics major; Phi Beta Kappa

An aspiring physician, LaPorte is co-director of the Pre-Health Peer Mentor Corps and has enjoyed shadowing clinicians at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and conducting clinical research, including with an organ transplant group and with a sports medicine group at Massachusetts General Hospital.

As a math major, he found himself most interested in theoretical mathematics, especially combinatorics, which he says helped me think about problems in new and interesting ways.

He has taught fifth-grade math with the Center for Talented Youth and is a volunteer emergency medical technician for a Baltimore-area fire department.

Among his Dartmouth activities, he served as risk manager for his fraternity, Phi Delta Alpha, and as a peer tutor and learning fellow for math, chemistry, and biology classes. He was a ski instructor, a member of the climbing team that won the 2019 bouldering and speed regional championships, and enjoyed playing intramural sports, including as a hockey goalie.

After graduation, LaPorte will conduct sports orthopedics clinical research at Massachusetts General Hospital while applying to medical school.

Sophia MillerGrantham, N.H.Chemistry major; Phi Beta Kappa

A chemistry major with interests in Middle Eastern studies and womens, gender, and sexuality studies, Miller hasaccepted a Fulbright Scholarshipto live in Jordan next year, where she will study Arabic and pursue an independent project to help expand access to hands-on chemistry education for female refugees.

After completing a language study abroad program in Morocco in 2019, Miller received funding from the Dickey Center to pursue a research internship in Amman, Jordan, where she helped develop a survey of the lived experience of gender.

She worked as a research assistant in the Associate Professor of ChemistryKatherine Miricaslab as a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar, and completed work toward her senior honors thesis, Towards Arrays of Metal-Organic Frameworks for the Detection of Ovarian Cancer from Exhaled Air, in that same lab.

Among her other Dartmouth activities, Miller is co-president of the Sexual Assault Peer Alliance, a teaching assistant and learning fellow for chemistry, and a member of Movement Against Violence.

Connor MorrisDayton, OhioBiology major modified with Chemistry; Phi Beta Kappa

With plans to pursue a career in medicine, Morris was a battery science intern at Xerion Advanced Battery, a research intern at the Wright State Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, and a telehealth intern at Premier Health.

He earned six citations for academic excellence in his economics, chemistry, and biological sciences classes.

Among his Dartmouth activities, he played on the rugby club team and played keyboard and sang lead vocals for the band The Dandelions.

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Portraits of the 2022 Valedictorians and Salutatorians - Dartmouth News