New WSSU Student Research Fellows selected to partner with CSEM team

Pictured (left to right): Naiya Jackson, Asya Baldwin and Nakyla Comer.

In its five years, the Center for the Study of Economic Mobility (CSEM) has stressed student involvement, including more than 25 students in its projects. The learning is a two-way-street, with CSEM Faculty Fellows learning almost as much from our students, often from their lived experiences.

For 2023, the CSEM Student Research Fellows are Asya Baldwin, Naiya Jackson and NaKyla Comer, who met the very high qualifications set by Dr. Craig Richardson, director of CSEM.

Baldwin is a senior Business Administration and Economics double major from Greensboro. “I will be a first-generation graduate come May,” she said. “The enjoyment that comes from understanding an economic issue, and solving that issue, is what attracted me to CSEM. I hope by the end of this internship I will gain new perspectives when handling economic mobility.”

Jackson is a senior Economics student with a concentration in Business Economics. “CSEM Director Craig Richardson really allowed me to love economics in his Applied Econometrics and Forecasting course during the fall 2022 semester. He later offered an internship opportunity with CSEM and there was no doubt in my mind about pursuing the opportunity. I always passed by the CSEM office and heard about their contribution to local meetings and I was very excited to be a part of the center.”

Comer is a junior from Greensboro studying Business Economics. “I have always had a love for data and finance,” she said. “I worked in banking before working for Lincoln Financial Group, servicing their life insurance products. I took Dr. Richardson’s economics class last fall and fell in love with quantitative data. Analyzing datasets and telling a story of what the numbers say is something that I enjoy doing. I am hoping to gain skills in reviewing datasets and understanding advanced regression. I am grateful to have the opportunity to impact the community by participating in such an effective program.”

Zach Blizard, CSEM’s research manager, said, “CSEM is excited to have such a great group of students join our team as Fellows. We are excited about their contribution. They will get the opportunity to work on a project CSEM is doing for Greensboro, related to changes in lending trends, small-dollar homes, and demographic changes happening in the city.”

Richardson noted that all three students were outstanding in his Fall 2022 Econometrics class. “I’m so pleased they are committed to CSEM’s approach of turning data into stories that reveal some hidden truth around poverty and economic mobility.”

“We look forward to them helping us think about questions we may be forgetting, and also giving them new opportunities to connect beyond the WSSU campus.”