Stewart Burns Wade is Director of Enrollment, Research and Policy, Office of Student Enrollment, NYC Department of Education. While in the Sociology of Education program, she studied school choice and worked on several research projects that studied high school admissions in NYC. Her current job is heavily focused around data analytics and policy research which draws on the skills she learned during her graduate studies at NYU.
What was something you especially value from your time at NYU Steinhardt? Was there a course or professor or particular challenge that sticks with you?
I took Economics of Education with Sean Corcoran while at NYU and it is the course that most likely shifted me on my current career path, not only because of the class itself, but also because of the relationship that I built with Professor Corcoran. I knew that he studied school choice and it was an area that I was interested in myself. I ended up working with him, alongside Jen Jennings from the Sociology Department and NYU Alum Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, to join their High School Admissions Study. It was the most formative and influential experience I had during my time at NYU.
How did you end up in your current role?
As the project director for the High School Admissions study, I had the opportunity to work directly with the research team within the Office of Student Enrollment and actually met several of my current colleagues through that work. Having worked for almost a year in academia after graduating from Steinhardt, I felt eager to transition to a role that I felt could enable me to have a more immediate impact on families.
Do you have any words of advice for current grad students?
Take advantage of the relationships that you have with your professors. Find out what they are working on and see if you can get involved in their research. You can learn a tremendous amount outside of the classroom.