The Price Post

Meet the USC Price undergraduate speaker

Eleanor Love was hardly the first USC student to help conduct research for the university’s Center for Inclusive Democracy (CID).

• But she may well have been the first to start at age 14.
• Love began her research career as a freshman – in high school. She interned with USC Price Assistant Professor Mindy Romero, helping CID develop a voting-poll location tool in 2018.
• “That was a huge reason why I got so interested in policy research,” said Love, who earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy with a Concentration in Data Analytics.

Eight years later, Love delivered the undergraduate commencement speech to roughly 5,000 USC Price School undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students and their families.

• It was only fitting that she saw a familiar face on stage: Romero handed Love her diploma.

Read more about our Undergraduate Speaker

Family hardship motivated graduate speaker to study public policy

Two years ago, Alexander Ryan dealt with a broken healthcare system when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

• After his mom underwent surgery, he needed to gather dozens of documents to file a health insurance claim. On top of that, Tennessee, where his mom was treated, provided some of the lowest state-law protections for disabled workers, forcing her to use paid vacation days to go to doctor’s appointments. Meanwhile, other states where Ryan grew up, such as California and Illinois, had more protections for people like his mom.

As stressful as it was, the experience clarified what Ryan wanted to pursue in life: public policy.

• “What ultimately drove me to policy was the disconnect I experienced in state and federal law: where one state created protections on top of the American Disabilities Act for people like my mom, and the other would have made her use vacation days so she could see her doctor,” Ryan said. “The same standard of care, and appreciation for her life, should be available to everyone in this country, regardless of where they live.”

Two years later, Ryan delivered the Graduate Speaker speech at the Commencement ceremony. He now plans to launch a career in international policy.

Read more about our Graduate Speaker

What else is (Commencement) news

🏆 Award-Winning Dissertation: USC Price Ph.D. grad Yuquan “Wendy” Zhou introduced a novel, “people-based” approach to measuring when and where essential services are accessible in urban areas. The dissertation won the Western Regional Science Association’s Charles M. Tiebout Prize for best student-authored paper. Read more

💉 Motivated by COVID-19: MHA grad Alex Gramajo experienced first-hand the barriers faced by minority communities in his historically working-class neighborhood in Milwaukee, from language gaps to under-resourced clinics, during the COVID-19 pandemic. He now plans to pursue a career as a strategy consultant for hospital systems. Read more

🏥 Redeveloping an L.A. landmark: BRED grad Eddie Pech landed a job as an assistant project manager at Primestor, a Culver City development company. His first project: help transform the mothballed L.A. County General Hospital near his home. Read more