Will Hurley ‘24

Will Hurley is a junior majoring in economics and global affairs interested in security studies and political economy. He works with Professor Eva Dziadula in the economics department focusing on immigration. Currently, they are working on a project that creates a global-scale migration model centered on neoclassical economic migration theory and leveraging Python and Jupyter as the base modeling platform. The goal is to improve social scientists’ understanding of migration and their access to visually and computationally robust infrastructure. Additionally, Hurley works on a project that examines the impact of expanding driving privileges to undocumented immigrants on traffic safety and fatal hit-and-run accidents. This study uses a quasi-experimental approach that exploits the temporal and geographic variation in the adoption of legislation granting driving privileges to undocumented migrants and their distinct concentration across states.

This past summer, Hurley was selected for the Kellogg Institute’s Summer Entrepreneurial Internship, and he won full funding to work at the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. Working as an employment access intern for eight weeks, Hurley worked with refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants in South Africa with their job search by creating CVs, developing their computer and English skills, and communicating and negotiating with potential employers. He also helped clients apply for citizenship, asylum seeker status, refugee status, or permanent residency with the South African Home Affairs Department. Hurley is looking forward to enhancing his research skills, and he hopes to work in the Intelligence Community after graduation.