Amina is a rising sophomore at Harvard College, in Cambridge Massachusetts. Amina is interested in concentrating in History & Science (an interdisciplinary concentration offered at Harvard) with a secondary in economics along a pre-law track. Amina knows she wants to be involved in a career that gives back. She is interested in exploring data science and the ways finance can be implemented to increase the mobility of impoverished communities. At Harvard she is involved with the Islamic Student Association, Nigerian Student Association, the Women’s Club lacrosse Social Chair, Harvard Science Review, and the Institute of Politics. The Harvard IOP is what allowed Amina to discover an opportunity with local government here in Syracuse.
Although Harvard is her new home, Amina is a proud native of Syracuse, New York. She recently graduated from the Syracuse City School District, Nottingham High School in 2021. At Nottingham, Amina found a deep passion for service. Amina credits her unique perspectives on social issues, to her experience growing up in the diversity of the Syracuse City School District.
Amina has provided for the Syracuse community, ranging from organizing menstrual product drives with her Girl Up club to benefit RISE (a local refugee center), to co-hosting a local Black Lives Matter protest in the summer of 2021, and leading community dialogue was instrumental in her high school career. Amina’s transition from being a part of a well-connected community in Syracuse, to having to form a new community in Cambridge was not easy. This feeling lead her to the IOP’s Syracuse City Summer opportunity with the Mayor’s Accountability, Performance, and Innovation team.
The prospect of being able to return to the Syracuse community and help foster positive change through the use of data was extremely exciting for her. During her spring semester, she took Economics 50, which was a course that focused on the use of big data to solve social problems. Through this course, Amina learned how to code in Stata language and the ways the application of local data can increase upward mobility within cities like Syracuse.
Since starting as a fellow for the API team, Amina has enjoyed her experience learning about each team member's projects. Amina is currently working on editing and improving the Open Data Portal with Jason Scharf, Innovation Academy with Jessica Brandt, and Mayor's Executive Order No. 1 Action #13 with Hannah Garty, which involves developing a curriculum for the Syracuse Police Academy in partnership with Le Moyne College. When tasks are completed Amina tackles a new batch of projects. She has enjoyed collaborating with all of the team as each team member has been extremely helpful and welcoming to her!