Alumni Profile: Zipei Zheng, PRIB'25

Zipei Zheng, PRIB’25,  discovered her passion for accounting while a student at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. “I had taken finance and economics courses but connected most with accounting: it felt like the building blocks of business.”  

Zheng subsequently secured an internship at the Shenzhen Tax Bureau, investigating whether international companies were avoiding taxes. “Through this internship, I became interested in fraudulent ESG [Environmental, Social, and Governance] reporting by way of law and policy. After speaking with ESG consultants, I realized that while the lack of ESG policy is one problem, another lies in vagueness. Even governments and corporations with relatively mature ESG frameworks are unable to satisfactorily define standards—or articulate non-financial activities and impacts—of ESG-related activities.” 

As a result of this interest, Zheng said, the Policy Research and Innovation Bootcamp (PRIB) immediately appealed to her. “I wanted to find the most optimal way to measure and study companies’ non-financial activities and gain a better understanding of the intersection of data analysis, research, and policy application.” 

However, PRIB was not Zheng’s introduction to the University of Chicago. “I had a humanities professor in my freshman year who went to UChicago, and he mentioned how he could always find the people who resonated with him there. In that way, PRIB was an ideal opportunity for me to experience UChicago before making any real long-term commitments.”

PRIB, Zheng said, was everything her professor had said. “It was a wonderful two weeks. Everybody was interested to learn about my experiences and share theirs. PRIB was like an amazing firework that constantly lit up inspiration in my head throughout the two weeks.” 

Professors Benjamin Krause and Austin Wright were especially inspiring, she added. “Early in my academic career, when I was deciding between economics, finance, or accounting, I had a hard time understanding how economics was applicable—I never felt I could do much with it. All that changed when I met Professor Krause. His work is very practical and grounded and changed my mind about economics in general. I now see economists do more than just theorize about big macro- or microeconomic things: they can also get into detailed, specific parts of a community and make a change. 

“Similarly, Professor Wright provided policy perspectives that opened my eyes to what public policy is, and what this field can do.”

The Teaching Assistants, Zheng added, also influenced her: “Talking to Emmanuel and Alex gave me great insight into career paths—just learning how they connected professional and academic pathways.” 

However, Zheng said it was guest speaker Ellen Cohen who had the greatest impact on her. “She had a very unconventional route to where she is now, and that really encouraged me. I was worried that my background wouldn't work with where I wanted to go, but one thing she said just imprinted in my head: Ask a good question—and really pursue it. When you find that your skills, your knowledge, your abilities are not enough to answer the question, you go back to school to delve deeper.

“I was on a typical ‘college-to-graduate-school-to-maybe-PhD’ path, and Ellen got me thinking about what I really want to do, what impact I really want to make, and then look for where I can get the skill and knowledge to do that.”

Now, Zheng said, she plans to take a professional route for two to three years, get her CPA, and then “see what opportunities lie in integrating ESG in a way that actually works. And I don't know if my idea is even viable, which is why I want to work for a few years—just to adjust my expectations, ideas, and plans while I dive into the professional world and get a better sense of how everything works. And I wouldn’t be doing this were it not for PRIB: it really gave me much more than I could have hoped for.”