Meet Precious Fasakin

Precious joined the Initiative (at NYU Stern) in July 2021, after graduating from the University of California, Riverside, with a BA in Economics and a minor in Anthropology.

While an undergraduate, Precious received a Chancellor’s Research Fellowship, was an RA with the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program and with the Blum Initiative on Global & Regional Poverty, and sat on the editorial board of the University of California Riverside Undergraduate Research Journal. In 2020, she was named Valedictorian of the AEA Summer Program‘s Advanced Track.

LISTENING AND LIFTING UP

Precious spent several years as a DJ, journalist, and student manager within her campus radio station, KUCR 88.3 FM, where she hosted a weekly program highlighting the music, culture, and history of the African continent and its diaspora, broadcast to more than 50,000 unique listeners.

During her senior year she also served as co-president of the Underground Scholars Initiative, an organization helping to build a pipeline to higher education for individuals impacted by incarceration, and she has spent more than five years as lead journalist and head intern with the nonprofit organization Global Girl Media.

…

for more FROM precious…

>> Follow her on Twitter @bukifasa

>> Listen to playlists from her radio broadcasts with KUCR

Entrance Interview: Economics in Her Own Words

   I believe I first began to recognize and appreciate the power of economics once I was able to define it for myself. In my final year of high school, I was struggling with AP Economics and had become disillusioned. My mentor at the time encouraged me to channel my curiosity and my frustration into empowerment and investment in the world around me. She suggested I read Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought & Practice, by Jessica Gordon Nembhard.

That book altered my perception of economics and made clear its potential for justice and equity. Understanding that economics is about resources and their allocation, and not necessarily money itself, was the moment I began to see it all around me: in co-ops, credit unions, and farmer’s markets—even in the ingredients of my mother’s stew! I began to see the study of economics as an opportunity to respond critically to marginality, crisis, and inequity.

I also see my economic research as a way to honor the story of sacrifice and intergenerational wealth accumulation, especially in human capital, within my family—for example, the way my maternal grandfather promised and sold cocoa not yet harvested to support my mother’s school fees. His and other family members’ values and resourcefulness created generations of increased opportunity.

The experiences of my family in the United States and in Nigeria inspire me to ask important societal and structural questions. Ultimately, my research interests lie in the belief that expanding human capabilities, examining and critiquing the role of institutions in economic growth, and adopting a community-centered approach to development are foundational elements of economic stability and longevity.”

…

Precious’s research explores the relationship between freedom and development, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and focuses on community-based economic models for asset-building, empowerment, and equity in the Global South. Hoping to work at the intersection of economic development, political economy, cooperative economics, and emerging markets with an African regional focus, Precious plans to use her time in the Ph.D. Excellence Initiative to gain further skills, insights, and mentorship that will enable her to successfully pursue a doctoral degree and serve as an educator, economist, and journalist in years to come.