Student Profile: Vladimir Bejdo, DPSS’23

Born in Athens, Greece, Vladimir Bejdo graduated from the University of Washington in 2022 at age 18 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in law, societies, and justice. “I attended the University of Washington through its Transition School/Early Entrance Program, and that gave me the ability to matriculate at the University of Washington in lieu of attending high school.”
 
While completing his undergraduate degree, Bejdo wrote a thesis on a line of European case-law specifying limits to the freedom of assembly and association necessary in a democratic society under a comparative law and courts professor. The thesis, driven by a mixture of doctrinal and empirical legal research methods, received a departmental award and was presented at an undergraduate research symposium. Although Bejdo said he deeply appreciated having access to top researchers and diverse opportunities for engagement while at Washington, he felt formal quantitative learning and skills were missing from his experiences. “I had some informal exposure to programming and computational statistics through independent research or projects with professors, but I wanted to take on more rigorous work in quantitative analysis.”
 
This sentiment carried through in his role as a Program Coordinator for the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. “In an ideal world, the admissions process could be more data-informed,” Bejdo said. “I was seeking ways to discuss and implement methods in marketing analytics, return on investment calculations, and technical translations in the work we were doing in graduate admissions to ensure it had its greatest possible impact.”
 
With these personal and professional enrichment opportunities in mind, Bejdo enrolled in the Data and Policy Summer Scholar (DPSS) program at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. “I wanted a self-contained credential program to explore graduate level coursework at an institution that would stretch my thinking about how social research is done. This, combined with the application to law, policy, and my current work, allowed me to explore my intellectual curiosities.”
 
His DPSS experience, Bejdo said, satiated that curiosity. “The DPSS coursework was engaging and provided me with a sense of fulfillment. Plus, I appreciated the asynchronous nature of the course and range of TA office hours, especially as I was on the west coast.”
 
In addition to the online programming offered through the course, many students, including Bejdo, had the opportunity to visit campus in September 2023. “This meet-up event allowed me to network with Harris faculty and administrators, which made the ties to UChicago feel more real. Additionally, meeting my classmates and program alumni and learning about their diverse experiences gave me insight on different policy areas and allowed for the sharing of perspectives and advice.”
 
As for what’s next for Bejdo, he will be attending law school at the University of California, Berkeley—taking with him the skills he developed through DPSS. “I see a personal and social value in practicing law, because it will allow me to unite my commitments into a vocation that promises to be fruitful to society. And, because of my DPSS experience, I will always be data literate, which is important—even in work that is not inherently technical. A verifiable, empirical understanding of the world as shaped by the law can spur intelligent discussions of the policy issues that both undergird and follow from legal reasoning. After all, results should always be quantified and analyzed to help ensure the value of their outcomes.”