Since I was old enough to understand what my father did for a living, I have been fascinated by systems
— the invisible networks of policy, data, and human behavior that determine how communities thrive or
struggle. That fascination became a purpose during my junior year, when a small research project on
urban transit access showed me that a single well-placed data point could redirect public resources
toward the people who needed them most. I learned that meaningful change rarely begins with grand
gestures; it begins with asking better questions and following the evidence wherever it leads. A graduate
education is the natural next step in a journey I started long before I had the language to name it — one
defined not by a single destination, but by a commitment to understanding the world well enough to
leave it slightly better than I found it.
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