Talia Lesser Chopra ’08: Putting an Economics Degree to Work in the Real World

Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Talia and her brother, Joshua ’06 arrived at Fay in the fall of 2005 after Hurricane Katrina ravaged their hometown. “Fay was one of the first schools to respond,” Talia explains. “Fay’s caring community really helped my transition.” After Fay, Talia matriculated at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire; by senior year, she was a dorm prefect, co-head of the French Club, and captain of three varsity teams.

When she began college at the University of California Santa Cruz, Talia (like most college students) had not yet identified a major. While she was fascinated with biology and the humanities, math, economics, and computer science soon emerged as her primary areas of interest. “I was thinking about pursuing an Ph.D. in  economics, and my advisor told me that I would have to complete more math courses to be a competitive applicant,” she says. “In the process of taking those upper-level classes, I fell in love with math and discovered that I enjoyed analyzing data, so I ultimately decided to focus on computer science.”