University of California, Berkeley

Freshman year, my floormate says to me: "if I could see more of the world, I totally would." I, in naivety, ask, "what's stopping you?" He replies, "travelling is a luxury I can't afford right now." 

I laugh at one of my best friends because he skipped orientation to go take photos of the solar eclipse in Oregon, and we ended up skipping graduation to go to Alaska together. Grateful to have found an eclectic community of deep-thinkers, occasional rebels, full-time nerds and adventurers. Love being curious together.

I didn't want to join consulting clubs for the sake of my resume. I wanted to write about human irrationalities -- and I found a place in Business Review at Berkeley. In my interview we talked about everything from Rousseau to Thaler's 'Misbehaving'. That's the thing -- Berkeley is so big you can find someone to share anything with, but you have to take initiative to go find it.

Working in the Student Union made me realise that Berkeley has A LOT of resources, for any niche interest, curiosity, struggle someone may face. A class on clouds, legal advice on rent hikes, that one book on Chinese marriage principles in the 16th century, or even free access to The Economist. They exist, I guarantee it. Go out and wring these resources dry!

Quiet 6:30am mornings alone in my room on Channing. Afternoons at Brewed Awakening up Euclid Ave. Deep night, my little spot of solace behind Stephen's Hall. Those moments with myself, I feel the most anchored. Away from the noise of the crowd.

The first ever piece of code I've written was in CS61A, Introduction to Computer Science. Lab01, I ask my experienced-coder floormate what a "function" means. I can't seem to get the idea of function as a math concept, x=f(x), out of my mind. Spent an hour trying to write a simple one-liner while loop. Don't think I'll forget the frustration, then accomplishment, I felt that day.

I never had to small talk in a lift back in Hong Kong. Cantonese used to come naturally to me. I missed eating family style. This one I still struggle with today: what is the line between adaptability with this unfamiliar culture of America, and losing the roots of my home, Hong Kong? 

This class was so much fun and was extremely insightful. I enjoyed learning about tax havens, tax and transfer policy, welfare state -- undergirded by theoretical tools and supported with frontier research (a lot of which were the Prof's own!). What I loved most was that the class was both relevant, and encouraged critical thought -- would a wealth tax, as proposed by Warren and Sanders, be effective? What are the additional difficulties that lower-income countries face (relative to higher) in fighting the pandemic? 

I've always been a fan of Behavioural Economics -- reading Thaler's 'Misbehaving' and Ariely's 'Predictably Irrational'. After learning Econ for years, it's easy to forget that the basic assumptions of Econ are not facts -- we're not fully rational agents. Imagine learning I could take a class on this! Full nerd out moment.

I've never written code until I came to Berkeley. My first code-writing class was a Computer Science class -- but what really hooked me in was Principles of Data Science. I found DS to be the perfect balance between having structure but allowing for creativity. A blend of big-picture thinking (what is the hypothesis? What am I looking for in my data set? What are the features I need to engineer? What bias could occur?), and meticulous analysis. And the aesthetic graphs (that ofc, tell a story)!

Prior to this class, poetry was always about structure. About form, rhyme, rhythm. Poetry for the People -- founded by June Jordan in 1991, brings together activism and poetry -- taught me that poetry is empowerment, an attestation to our individual struggles, a challenge to reconstruct norms, a form of agency, a way to be free. I learnt to practice poetry to confront, to confess, and to contemplate. It was the first time I'd written since years ago too, and rekindled my love for it.

What first attracted me to BRB was its people. They were all enthusiastic learners who had interdisciplinary curiosities. As Editor in Chief, I got to read articles from understanding the post-Lukashenko economy, to learning about the fashion-tech industry. I loved spending time with people who loved just simply learning for the sake of it (and, the poker was fun too hehe).

With the onset of COVID-19 and the sudden influx of unemployment insurance (UI) claims, we wanted to explore timeliness of benefit payments to claimants and how that may have affected claimant consumption behavior. What I loved most is the complexity of the research – investigating UI meant unpeeling all its different facets to understand nuances. It allowed me to fully turn on my curiosity mode, asking questions to ensure we were comprehensive before applying economic models.