Russell Legate-Yang, AB’22, has been selected as a 2024 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow, which will support him in his doctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Since 1998, the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans has honored the contributions of immigrants and children of immigrants to the United States by investing in the graduate education of 30 New Americans each year.
Legate-Yang is one of 30 2024 Soros Fellows, who were chosen for their achievements and their potential to make significant contributions to U.S. society, culture or their academic fields. With 2,323 applicants and a 1.3% selection rate, this year’s cycle is among the most competitive in the fellowship’s 26-year history. Each Soros Fellow will receive up to $90,000 in funding to support their graduate studies at institutions across the country.
The son of Canadian and Chinese immigrants, Legate-Yang graduated from the College with an AB in Economics and Mathematics, both with Honors, in 2022.
The highly competitive fellowship will support Legate-Yang’s pursuit of a Ph.D. in economics. It will also connect him with other fellowship winners, who will gather for town halls, local meetups, campus visits and the annual Fall Conference in New York City.
Legate-Yang’s research focuses on understanding and improving K-12 public school effectiveness. He says his work is urgent, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic reversed decades of learning gains and exacerbated already large education gaps.
“Targeted recovery efforts require that we first understand what works and why: Why do learning losses persist? Which schools and programs effectively help students?” he said. “We only get a few chances to pick a new neighborhood, job, or school, and we cannot run experiments in our lives to decide. We need research to help us make effective and informed decisions.”
Legate-Yang, from Swarthmore, Pa., said he learned to apply rigorous methods to study intractable problems as a student in the College. His dual-major coursework in math and economics helped him develop an analytical mindset and build a methodological toolkit for research, while the Core Curriculum pushed him to think more broadly about social structures and approach problems from different perspectives.
“Through diverse research projects in economics, political science and public policy, and especially my honors economics thesis, I learned to separate cause from chance in data and connect academic work to practical problems,” he said.
After graduating in 2022, Legate-Yang joined Blueprint Labs at MIT to study K-12 public school effectiveness with economists Josh Angrist and Parag Pathak. He also worked with New York City Public Schools to revamp the city’s school ratings system for its over 1,700 public schools and 1 million students.
The revamped system considers students’ starting points before they enroll in a school, and will soon be deployed by the city for use by students, families and education policymakers.
Graduate school and the Soros Fellowship will help Legate-Yang prepare for a career committed to advancing social good and giving back to communities that he said paved the way for him to reach this point.
“I'm incredibly thrilled and grateful to join this community of Fellows,” he said. “I would like to thank my family, Baba, Mom and Vivian, for encouraging me, allowing me, and teaching me to do what I’m passionate about every day. Thanks to my friends for having fun with me through it. And thanks to my partner Krithika, who inspires my life. I’d also like to thank my mentors and colleagues, whose investment in my work empowered me.”
In addition to being selected as a Soros Fellow, Legate-Yang was also chosen this year for the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which will support his graduate studies.
Legate-Yang received interview support from the College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF), which supports College students and alums who apply for nationally competitive fellowships.