Rebecca Davis ’15
Dake Summer Scholar and economics major Conor Quinn ’15 is tackling a big job: getting underprivileged teens to continue their education beyond high school.
Working with assistant professor of economics, Arindam Mandal, Ph.D., and Assistant Director of Academic Community Engagement, Ruth Kassel, Ph.D. Quinn developed an instrument that assesses key factors shaping a student’s choice whether or not to pursue a college degree. While taking Mandal’s “The Economics of Discrimination” course, Quinn discovered that such a decision has several dimensions including financial assistance, social support, home environment, academic drive and sense of self-worth.
Quinn worked on a 180-question survey, which is administered to students at Green Tech High, an all- boys charter school for mainly low-income families in Albany. His analysis of the data allows Green Tech to focus its resources on areas of greatest student need.
“This is not just another research project,” Quinn said. “We’re making a real difference in these students’ lives.”
He and Mandal hope to include Albany Leadership Charter High School for Girls in future surveys to make their data more diverse, and they look forward to the day when similar instruments will be used nationwide to help disadvantaged youth get to college.
Quinn will present his research at the New York State Economics Association Conference in October.
