Alumni Profile: Shreeya Misra, DPSS'22

"I fell in love with coding after I was introduced to it in high school," said Shreeya Misra, DPSS'22. "My teacher in high school, Ms. Asha, would compare coding to jigsaw puzzles. She would tell us to look at every individual part to figure out our errors and work on our code. The feeling of completing a lengthy piece of code and seeing it pop up with absolutely no errors was an absolute dream. Combine that with coding alongside my friends, and the whole experience was an incredible time for me."

Now in the second year of her bachelor’s in economics at Krea University in India, Misra said she is particularly interested in fiscal policy. "I decided to study economics to better understand the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy decisions. One of the hottest topics in this area in India is welfare policy and policy aimed at assisting socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Ultimately, I would like to stay in India and work on some of these important issues.”

Misra said she initially learned about the Data and Policy Summer Scholar (DPSS) program through fellow students at Krea University. “Many seniors in my program participated in DPSS, including one of my good friends, Meera Trivedi. They all had great things to say about it, and reading the testimonials of former participants cemented my interest. There were many people who said it was a very useful approach to learning R coding, which I knew I wanted to learn—especially in the context of policy questions."

DPSS, Misra said, turned out to be a perfect fit. “It’s a summer I won’t forget. The quantity and quality of learning kept me engaged, and the other scholars were such a joy to work with.” Beyond the curriculum, Misra also says she learned a lot about how to navigate a virtual community. “There were people from all walks of life, which was very reflective of the real world. I was among the youngest, so I was mindful of that as I went through it. But after each session, I felt more and more confident and encouraged to  engage with my classmates, faculty, and staff.”

Prior to starting DPSS, Misra was Project Head for the IC3 Institute's Student Quest Survey (downloadable here), a study aimed at understanding factors that influence high school students’ decisions regarding higher education and early career opportunities across the world. "Part of our research was to understand whether students ages 15-18 needed additional guidance on career decisions or if they were being pressured to choose certain career paths because they are more lucrative. We found that, in general, there is a push towards science-related majors and that there exists both a gender bias and a socioeconomic bias across college majors.”

Misra said she often leans into the skills she learned during DPSS. “After completing DPSS, I took an econometrics course where my experience with R came in handy. In addition, the ideas we unpacked in DPSS are helping me break down the economic concepts I am interested in so that I can understand them at a more granular level. I definitely believe DPSS has better prepared me to succeed academically."