food pantry

my classmate and i went out to a trenton pantry to survey their clients.  the trenton area is considered a "food desert," with few grocery stores and little access to fresh foods.  we'd been working with the food bank to develop and test a needs assessment survey, and today was our first time to use the instrument for reals.

it felt nice to win people's trust.  also, to see that the survey was confirming some of our hypotheses about food access.  it reminded me also, of the crazy maze that people have to navigate to get basic social services.  in policy school, it's easy to forget the people behind the econometrics of "program evaluation" and maybe why we wanted to come here in the first place.

although i sometimes joke that graduate school is poverty, i think my meager stipend is still 2 times higher than the highest income person i surveyed today.  so, there's a lot to be grateful for.  hopefully our work will help to make the food bank's programs and services better tailored to their clients' needs.

spring break

my sister and i were back in the bay for spring break :)

sisterly fun:

• played indie video games at a film festival "exhibit"
  
• watched a really sad film festival film about japan, helping people, the elderly, and cats
• jumped around at house of air
• dinner date with michelle at greens.  we got a table next to the window at sunset!
  
• facials and haircuts
  
• kayaking and beach bonfire near monterey

a jolly good time.

i also helped matt with house stuff.  and we checked out a great, new sushi place, ichi sushi on mission.

grad school is warping my brain

as you might have noticed, my coursework is super-interrelated.  sometimes it's nice, sometimes i think it's warping my brain. 

some themes:
- evaluating empirical studies.  econometrics sneaks into every one of my classes, and i'm glad to be taking a full year of it.
- social psychology.  also sneaks into every class.  i also appreciate it.  a nice counterweight to the super rational approach to economics.
- causality.  how can one really know that something caused another thing to occur?

that's social science!