Lauder Student, Edward Johnson, named a winner at Penn Grad Talks
From left to right: Valerie Averia (Applied Positive Psychology), Edward Johnson, (Lauder Institute), Rebecca Liu (Lauder Institute), Zhao Liu (Environmental Studies), and Kerry O’Neill (Applied Positive Psychology)
The Lauder Institute is pleased to recognize Edward Johnson (G’24, WG’24) and Rebecca Liu (G’24, WG’24) who were selected to compete in the Professional Master’s category of this year’s Penn Grad Talks. The competition, which took place at the Penn Museum on February 24, featured TED Talk-style presentations by Penn Arts and Sciences graduate students from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and professional master’s programs. Winners from each program category were announced on social media.
We congratulate Edward Johnson who won this year’s Professional Master’s category. Watch his winning presentation here.
The 2023 Lauder Institute student presentations:
The Battle for Africa’s Sporting Heart: Can Basketball Overtake Football’s Popularity? —Professional Master’s Category winner
Edward Johnson, a first-year student in Lauder’s Africa General Program, discussed the business of sports through the comparative lens of football and basketball in Africa. Edward explored why football is more popular on the African continent and detailed the structural and economic barriers that have impacted the popularization of basketball. He predicts that football will continue to dominate the continent in the foreseeable future despite a significant investment by the NBA to develop the Basketball Africa League (BAL).
How U.S. Startups Are Working to Serve Immigrants
Rebecca Liu, a first-year student in Lauder’s East and Southeast Asia (Mandarin) Program, explored how tech startups are working to service immigrant populations in the US. By 2065, immigrants and their descendants are projected to account for 88 percent of US population growth. Through researching companies in digital health, edtech, fintech, and legal tech, Rebecca discovered that there were approximately 41 US-based startups overall in these sectors geared toward helping immigrants, representing tremendous room for growth.
