My academic priorities are written by my personal experiences with economic hardship. Having spent part of my high-school years sleeping in an old Chevy Blazer alongside my mother, with brief motel stays as temporary reprieves, I now seek to develop the analytical skills necessary to study the factors behind the manifold hardships encountered by those on the margins. As low-wage jobs consistently failed to provide enough earnings to cover our rent and utilities, and as it seemed the economic system was working against us, I knew there had to be alternatives that would return economic autonomy to communities like mine. Once I began my undergraduate studies at Princeton University, generous need-based aid ensured that I could take advantage of opportunities for academic growth I may have otherwise missed. At Princeton, I developed quantitative research skills by analyzing specific cases of successful collective action, using econometric approaches to measure the viability of contrasting organizing models. By employing advanced methods—difference-in-differences, probit modeling, and cluster-robust strategies—and drawing on qualitative findings from field interviews with organized teachers, I examined how organized groups achieve structural change. As a research assistant under an Economics faculty member, I constructed datasets and conducted tests that examined minimum wages and collective-bargaining arrangements, deepening my awareness of how standard focuses in economics can either obscure or reveal the capacity of marginalized groups to organize autonomously. My theoretical understanding is enriched by direct experience in community organizing, where I have applied economic principles in supporting migrant laborers, engaging with tenants’ organizations, and facilitating workplace organizing. Through efforts with workers and tenants, I have gathered empirical questions that will inform graduate study at the London School of Economics and my planned doctoral work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst beginning in 2026. This practical experience is central to my interest in studying the transformation of economic structures through collective action outside of the state. While I refuse to overemphasize any single theoretical lens, I believe that advanced training in mainstream economics can fortify my statistical rigor and sharpen my appreciation for how power relations operate in practice. The renowned faculty expertise in organizational economics and institutional analysis at the London School of Economics, combined with the one-year intensive framework of my MSc, will prepare me to examine how movements—often outside parliamentary channels—impose constraints on dominant actors through protest actions, labor-union alliances, worker-managed enterprises, or local councils, and to uncover the conditions under which such alternative arrangements can form and endure. My longer-term objective is to produce scholarship inspired by the stories of communities often seen as powerless, where I have witnessed firsthand the potential of empirical evidence to bolster autonomy. In that sense, studies at LSE may contribute to solutions for localities that grapple with precarious wages and housing, helping low-income and disadvantaged households become co-creators rather than mere subjects to abstract phenomena beyond their control. Coming from a background of cyclical deprivation, I have overcome houselessness while managing ongoing disability-related and financial needs. With adequate support to focus on the MSc rather than unsustainable debt or employment overload, I can engage fully in research that addresses poverty and dispossession and build a line of inquiry that draws upon both neoclassical tools and alternative perspectives. In my career, I aim to clarify how organized collective action empowers marginalized groups to build counterpower and achieve material improvements in wages, housing stability, and working conditions—translating rigorous evidence into strategies that expand autonomy for those on the margins.

The pavement outside the St. Vincent de Paul shelter in St. Petersburg is still embedded in my memory. When my mother and I slept there—our car doubling as a bedroom and my homework desk—fate taught me that security is never guaranteed, but dignity can be fought for. That lesson has guided every challenge since, from academic hurdles to community organizing, and it explains why I refuse to let adversity write anyone’s final chapter. Adversity first tested me in eighth grade, when undiagnosed ADHD and major depressive disorder spiraled into hospitalization for suicidal ideation. Recovery was neither quick nor linear; therapy and medication had to be balanced against night shifts at McDonald’s to keep gas in the car we called home. Yet I graduated valedictorian, then earned a QuestBridge scholarship to Princeton, earning a bachelor's degree with qualifications while juggling three campus jobs and twenty-plus hours a week caregiving for my mother after her diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. When she lost her phone—and with it access to tele-health—I flew home during midterms, navigated benefits paperwork, and returned in time to present econometrics the next morning. Adversity still knocks, but I now greet it with a plan and the endurance forged in those asphalt nights. That resilience fuels my commitment to serve others. At the shelter where we once queued for dinner, I later volunteered on janitorial duty and meal service, reassuring families that hope was more than a line on a poster. In Florida, I canvassed 3,500 doors for Richie Floyd’s city-council campaign, amplifying tenants’ stories of black mold and predatory rent hikes until city hall could no longer ignore them. At Princeton, I co-founded the Young Democratic Socialists chapter, organizing with over 200 student workers for workplace improvements and pay raises. During COVID-19, I organized mutual-aid drops of groceries and medication to immunocompromised neighbors, coordinating with DSA chapters across three counties to fill gaps left by overstretched agencies. Most recently, as an organizer with Make the Road NJ, I conducted 100 one-on-one conversations—mostly in Spanish—with Amazon Flex drivers, drafting heat-safety demands now under review by the state senate. Success amid hardship, to me, is a platform we must take full advantage of in order to overturn those systems that create such conditions. Whether translating legalese for an immigrant worker at a labor hearing or analyzing strike data in my community-oriented research, I affirm that knowledge must travel the last mile to those who need it most. The Alger Memorial Scholarship would underwrite my transition to the MSc in Economics at the London School of Economics, where I will refine the analytical tools that turn frontline stories into policy leverage. Armed with lived experience and intensive preparation, I aim to design cooperative economic models that ensure no child finishes homework under a streetlamp and no caregiver has to choose between rent and medicine. I have weathered homelessness and mental health crises, but every setback has compelled me to lift others over similar hurdles. The Algers sacrificed to raise their goddaughter; I honor that legacy by expanding the circle of care—one canvassed door, tutoring session, and policy brief at a time.