RESUME
EDUCATION
Yale College, New Haven, CT – Expected Graduation in May 2028
Prospective Major: Global Affairs, Certificates: Computing, Culture, and Society + Data Science
Relevant Coursework: AI for Future Presidents; Law and Large Language Models; U.S.-China Economic Relations: Globalization or Decoupling?; Topics in Critical Computing; Law, Culture, and Technology; AI for Social Science Methods; Writing for the Web; Skin and Surface: Fashion & Culture; Against Empires: Postcolonial and World-Systems; Investing in Innovation (Tsai City)
Relevant Coursework: AI for Future Presidents; Law and Large Language Models; U.S.-China Economic Relations: Globalization or Decoupling?; Topics in Critical Computing; Law, Culture, and Technology; AI for Social Science Methods; Writing for the Web; Skin and Surface: Fashion & Culture; Against Empires: Postcolonial and World-Systems; Investing in Innovation (Tsai City)
WORK
Communication Coordinator at Yale's Digital Ethics Center
Oct. 2025 – Present
Lead communications strategy to amplify the Center's research and public impact. Create web, newsletter, and social media content translating complex scholarship into accessible narratives.
Developmental Intern at DataHaven
Sep. 2025 – Present
Support DataHaven Youth Action Council by preparing agendas, tracking projects, and connecting youth members with staff. Co-develop and deliver AI/data literacy curriculum, design evaluation frameworks to measure impact, and fundraising to sustain future programming.
Dwight Hall Urban Fellow
Aug. 2025 – Present
Selected for a fellowship focused on community empowerment and economic development. Working with Datahaven to receive structured professional mentorship.
Student AI Liaison at Poorvu Center for Teaching & Learning
Sep. 2025 – Present
Audit and redesign of Yale's AI guidance. Advised faculty on integrating AI tools into course design and pedagogy. Authored blog posts on neurodiverse learning strategies as a student with ADHD, effective AI techniques or best practices, and faculty perspectives on AI in higher education through interviews.
Content Fellow at NYC Youth Civic Hub
Jul. 2023 – Dec. 2024
Researched and created content for Hub about NYC-specific civic engagement information, resources, opportunities through Hub. Developed Power Map with 89 public officials and Organization Directory. Curated Hub's Digest newsletter.
Facilitator & Canvasser for The People's Money at the Civic Engagement Commission
Jan. 2023 & May – Jun. 2024
Facilitated dialogues with community members in Brooklyn Assembly Committee to narrow down and flesh out project proposals and create a Participatory Budgeting ballot. Canvassed 200+ New Yorkers and led public engagement events on The People's Money.
Shadow → Intern with Education Team at Independent Budget Office
Feb. 2023 – Aug. 2023
Provided feedback on their budget video project to make school budget information more accessible for the public. Conducted stakeholder analysis and interviews for restorative justice. Assessed and corrected IBO NYC Open Data to comply with regulations, proposed strategies to improve public engagement with IBO Open Data.
RESEARCH
Dahl Research Scholar at Institute for Social & Policy Studies, Yale
Nov. 2025 – Present
Conducting student-lead mixed-method research on NYC Community Boards as participatory governance institutions using AI/computational analysis (web scraping, natural language processing (NLP), large language models (LLMs)) and qualitative analysis on digital records, Needs Assessments, Demographic Reports, and stakeholder interviews. Created NYC Community Boards Dashboard (https://community-boards.nyc) with open code repository (https://github.com/txinjiez/nyc-community-boards-dashboard) to inform citywide policy on Community Boards. Presenting at the 2026 NYC School of Data civic tech conference.
Research Fellow at Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS), University of Maryland
Jun. 2025 – Aug. 2025
10-week program, funded by NSF, on both technical and ethical teams on AI + accessibility. Developed a verification process of AI outputs for Visual Question Answering (VQA) systems, designed to to improve trustworthiness and safety for blind users. Engaged with ethical questions and scenarios of AI VQA systems.
Policy Fellow at Encode
Jan. 2025 – May 2025
Track AI-related legislative and legal actions, industry lobbying, policy activity, and tech developments, with focus on NY and CT. Draft briefs, policy analyses, and policy recommendations. Lead dialogue on my campus on AI's impact on the future of work, engaging students of diverse professional interests.
Youth Researcher at Intergenerational Change Initiative
Jul. 2023 – Jun. 2024
Participatory Action Research to advocate for policy change on issues impacting NYC youths. Collected, analyzed, designed Youth Ask Youth Census, surveyed 1000+ youth. Presented ICI research to youth groups, organizations, city agencies.
Research Fellow for 18 ByVote's Exploring Youth Engagement
Jun. 2023 – Aug. 2023
Used quantitative and qualitative mixed methods to study youth civic engagement nationally (400+ respondents) and locally in New York, convened Civic Assemblies and conducted 6 hours of interviews. Designed the research, recruited respondents, coded the survey data, wrote and produced a 33-page report and recommendations based on insights directly from youths. Deliver public virtual presentation on research to 100+ attendees.
Research Assistant at K12 Inspector Lab at NYU
Jul. 2023 – Aug. 2023
Conducted qualitative research and thematic analysis on K12 cybersecurity policies across the US. Developed school cybersecurity advocacy and education initiative framework. Selected through NYU's ARISE program for K12 Inspector Lab.
Education Justice Participatory Action Researcher
Jan. 2022 – Jun. 2022
Qualitative research on inequities in NYC public school funding. Created EAquitas, education advocacy website, submitted to Emoti-con NYC 2022, awarded Most Social Impact. Interviewed School Chancellor David Banks through YouthComm. Joined the NYCLU & Alliance for Quality Education in advocacy and lobbying in D.C. and Albany.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT + CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Associate Board Member at BetaNYC
Jun. 2025 – Present
Build community with peers in civic tech. Outreach for partnerships and sponsors for events like CityCamp 2025 unconference. Engage with BetaNYC leadership, government staff, and the broader public interest tech ecosystem. Volunteered at School of Data for the past 3 years.
Content & Platform Developer for Source Development Hub
Nov. 2024 – Apr. 2025
Ideate and design website UX, content, frameworks for SDH projects: WISSP, an online affordable housing marketplace, and AffordCT, affordable housing data dashboard. Volunteering as Yale Dems City Engagement Fellow at SDH.
Brooklyn Community Board 11 Member
May 2023 – May 2024
Appointed by Borough President to serve on CB11 as the only person under 25. Cast votes on resolutions to city proposals and district issues. Listened and engaged with communities' and neighbors' concerns at CB meetings on zoning, quality of life, civil society, community engagement.
Civic Innovator Fellow at Civics Unplugged
Aug. 2022 – Dec. 2022
Researched and studied civic innovations. Nov. 2023: Participant in CU's Civic Innovation Academy at Austin, Texas. Feb. 2024: Invited to augural Democracy over Dinner. May 2024: Public Knowledge exchange with tech policy experts to deliberate and ideate on a campaign for digital literacy and youth technology safety regulation.
LEADERSHIP, ADVOCACY + ORGANIZING
YA-YA Network Action Committee
Feb. 2023 – Jun. 2024
Organize, lobby, testify, rally for education justice, specifically around restoring school funding cuts, metal detectors in schools, mental services for students, restorative justice, lack of transparency from the police department about their activities in schools. Facilitated workshops using popular education to engage participants in critical dialogue. F.O.I.L-ed NYPD and DOE about metal detector and scanning policies.
Student Leader at Dignity in Schools
Sep. 2023 – Jun. 2024
Fought for restorative justice and school support staff in the City Budget through testifying, lobbying, coalition-building. I planned, mobilized, and emceed 2024 Budget Campaign Launch, The People's Two Cent on Safe Schools. I also served on the committee to make DSC a more youth-friendly space to activate people.
Youth Council at #DegreesNYC
Jan. 2024 – Jun. 2024
Co-authored op-ed on New York State youth mental health plan by the Governor; presented at the DOE Youth Summit. Planned and facilitated Panel on Underrepresented Students in Higher Education with 40+ attendees.
Youth Agenda Steering Committee
Feb. 2023 – Jun. 2024
On Education Equity Policy Group and Community Board Working Group to lobby elected officials to make progress on NYC Youth Agenda recommendations. Planned Winter Dataland 2023 and Policy Party 2024 to engage youth and policy makers.
Activist → Organizer at New York Civil Liberties Union Teen Activist Project
Oct. 2022 – May 2024
Facilitated small groups to deliberate NYC/NYS social and civic issues. Organized Youth Lobby Day, lobbied elected state officials to promote the Schools Impacted By Gross Highway Act, New York For All, Comprehensive Sex Education and Solutions Not Suspensions. On the public education committee, wrote a personal story on immigration for the TAP newsletter.
AWARDS & HONORS
- Dwight Hall Urban Fellow, April 2025
- Democracy Champion, Certificate of Recognition by NYC Civic Engagement Commission, June 2024
- SparkYouth Scholar, June 2024
- Student Achievement Award from NYC Comptroller, June 2024
- Young Ambassador at Endless Frontier Labs (Startup Accelerator), NYU Stern, May 2024
- Youth Leadership Council Certificate of Recognition by NYC Service and Mayoral Office, May 2024
- NYS State Senate Youth Leadership Recognition Award, April 2024
- Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from Nicole Malliotakis, January 2024
- QuestBridge Match with Yale University, 2023
- The Donna Red Wing Award for Exceptional Organizing from YA-YA Network, 2023
- Horatio Alger National Scholar, 2023
- Pinkerton Science Scholar, 2023
- Youth Inspiration Award from GripTape.org, 2023
- Winner of Emoti-con NYC for Most Social Impact, 2022
- International Education & Charity Foundation Scholarship Recipient, 2022