Helen Zhao

BS 2024 Economics and Statistics, Politics and Public Policy minor, Environmental & Sustainability Studies Minor

Helen Zhao is a senior majoring in Economics and Statistics with minors in Environmental and Sustainability Studies (ESS) and Politics and Public Policy. Helen has always been interested in environmental issues, especially in clean air and water, and more recently in clean energy. She has been able to explore some of the various aspects of environmental science, engineering, and policy by taking classes both within and outside of her home college.

Through the ESS minor, Helen explored and developed her continued interest at the intersection of environmental issues and economics by taking classes focusing on this cross-section. Most notably, she took Sustainability, Energy & Environmental Economics with Professor Nicholas Muller where she learned to apply economic tools and models to characterize solutions for environmental issues resulting from market failures and promote sustainable growth. Taking such interdisciplinary classes ultimately led to her senior honors thesis on “Impacts of Socioeconomic Status and Minority Population on Childhood Blood Lead Levels in Pennsylvania.”

As a member of the Spring 2024 cohort of the CMU Washington Semester Program, Helen had the opportunity to intern in the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee where she integrated economics and environmental research skills to draft fact sheets on topics such as manufacturing spending under the CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act, groundwater's economic benefits, and fusion energy. Helen will be working at Wells Fargo’s Corporate Risk department after graduation and hopes to attend law school in the future focusing on transactional, energy, and environmental law.