P.D. Soros Fellowship for New Americans

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Ania Jaroszewicz, 2016

Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University

Ania Jaroszewicz is the child of immigrants from Poland

Fellowship awarded to support work towards a PhD in Behavioral Decision Research at Carnegie Mellon University

Born in California, Ania is the daughter of Polish immigrants. Troubled by the political and economic climate of Communist Poland, her parents seized an attractive job opportunity at a prestigious American university, arriving in the US a few years before Ania was born.

Like many immigrants, however, they soon learned that education and hard work do not guarantee financial success. Without the safety net that cultural and social capital helps ensure, her parents struggled to weather a series of financial shocks. After seeing the psychological impact of this financial hardship on her and her family, Ania became devoted to understanding the psychology of poverty.

Ania began formally pursuing these interests at the University of California, Berkeley, where she double-majored in economics and psychology, and then subsequently at Carnegie Mellon University, where she completed her MS and PhD in behavioral decision research. She supplemented her formal education on the psychology of poverty by working and volunteering at a range of consumer protection and poverty-alleviation organizations, including the Federal Trade Commission, the World Bank, and a transitional housing center in Washington, DC. 

Now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, Ania combines her firsthand experiences with financial struggle, her secondhand observations from her professional and volunteer work, and her training in economics and psychology to help combat poverty and resource inequality through research. In particular, her goal is to use behavioral economics to design psychologically informed poverty-alleviation and consumer protection policies. 

Education
  • PhD Behavioral Decision Research | Carnegie Mellon University 2020
  • MS Behavioral Decision Research | Carnegie Mellon University 2016
  • BA Psychology | University of California, Berkeley 2010
  • BA Economics | University of California, Berkeley 2010
Work History
  • Harvard University, Postdoctoral Fellow | July 2020 - PRESENT
  • Harvard University, Institute Fellow | July 2019 - June 2020
  • World Bank Group, Short Term Consultant: Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit | June 2016 - August 2016
  • Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Economics, Economic Research Analyst | January 2011 - March 2014
  • White House Council on Environmental Quality, Intern, Climate Change and Energy Team | October 2010 - January 2011
  • University of California Berkeley Economics Department, Research Assistant | July 2009 - July 2010
  • University of California Psychology Department, Research Assistant | August 2008 - May 2010
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