Student Profile: Xinying Song, MPP Class of 2025, MPIF’22

Xinying Song, MPP Class of 2025 and MPIF’22, said her family and community in her hometown of Harbin, China forms the foundation of her policy aspirations. “Many of my family members work for the Harbin Municipal Tax Bureau, so I grew up seeing firsthand the value of contributing to the social and economic development of my hometown. This is my intrinsic motivation to pursue public policy.” 

While earning her BA in business administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shenzhen, Song said she sought numerous extracurricular opportunities to further her professional experience in developing, analyzing, and evaluating economic policies.

“One especially rewarding opportunity was my internship with Shenzhen Finance Institute. I used BI [Business Intelligence] and Python software to gather and analyze data for the 13th Five-Year Urban Planning Project. I was then able to contribute a chapter to the Plan.” Song also said a research assistant position in which she researched carbon emissions with the Center for National Resource Economic Studies (CNRES) at Peking University made her more aware of the connection between public and environmental policy.  

Through these and other opportunities, Song expanded her skill sets. “I gained experience with programs such as MATLAB, Python, and Stata, and did data collection and processing, literature review, feasible analysis, and topic studies.” With her focus on economic policy, Song said, the PKU-UChicago Monetary Policy and International Finance Credential Program felt like a logical next step. 

“I like to be prepared, and I knew I eventually wanted to attend Harris. The MPIF seemed an ideal opportunity to become a more qualified MPP candidate, expand my knowledge of international countries' monetary systems, and learn about the policy choices of governments and central banks.”

Another draw of the MPIF, Song said, was the diversity of the participants. “I was excited to meet and make friends with people from different countries and learn more about their cultures. Over the course of the program, I learned a lot from all the participants, and that made the experience even more wonderful.”  

Song said one of the most valuable elements of the MPIF was the capstone project. “Under the guidance of Prof. Thomas Coleman, we evaluated the consequences of fiscal and monetary policies developed in four countries during the COVID-19 epidemic. The teamwork component was especially meaningful, because each of us brought different academic and professional skills to the project and made the best use of that breadth of talent to complete the capstone efficiently and effectively.” 

Completing MPIF, Song said, reaffirmed for her that a Master in Public Policy from Harris was her next step. “Since government decision-making has become more data driven, I can’t think of a better preparation than the Harris MPP curriculum. Gaining skills in economics, quantitative methods, and management will enable me to make the greatest impact in designing, analyzing, and implementing policy.”  Song said she is especially looking forward to Statistics for Data Analysis II: Regressions. “I am excited to learn advanced evaluation and forecasting methods that will be invaluable for policy analysis.”

Outside of academics, Song said she enjoys reading and golf. “Reading is an inexpensive way to get to know other cultures and stories, and I find golfing graceful and peaceful. I’m definitely looking forward to balancing my academics with exploring Chicago golf courses with friends.”