Adam Bieda

Adam is a graduate with a double major in Economics and English. Through the NLC Menino Fellowship, Adam spent the fall semester paired with IOC Director and Professor Graham Wilson and Professor of Economics Robert Margo in an on-campus Directed Study program. He spent the 2019 spring semester in Boston University’s (BU) Washington, DC study abroad program, where he took classes and participate in a paid internship in the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education and Families.

Through his Directed Study and his internship with the NLC, Adam conducted an economic historical analysis of an emerging public finance mechanism called the social impact bond. This social service funding stream is also called a “pay for success” contract. His study shed light on urban public finance needs, current practices, and, ultimately, how social impact bonds present new alternatives to existing solutions for urban financial challenges.

Adam comes to this fellowship with both passion and experience for research and advocacy. As a high school student, Adam created a tutoring service for adolescents with learning disabilities, particularly those with attention deficit and anxiety disorders, after identifying a gap in available services in a remedial class at his high school. Since joining the BU Class of 2019, Adam has continued to pursue activities focused on educational inclusion, both as a mathematics tutor for Tutors for All, a service partnered with Boston Public Schools (BPS) in under-served communities, and as an education intern in the Museum of Fine Arts’ Community Programs office where he led educational activities for BPS youth at Camp Harborview.

On campus, Adam was a Research Assistant for the Social Learning Lab, where he assisted postdoctoral students and faculty conducting research on children’s social development and behavioral learning patterns. He also served as the Finance Director for Squinch Magazine, a student-run arts magazine, and was the Founder and Curator of the “Gallery for the Community,” a collaboration between Roca, Inc., Pavement Coffeehouse, and artists to coordinate a philanthropic art show and raised money for participants in Roca’s Young Mothers program over the 2016 holiday season.

Learn more about Adam and his NLC Fellowship experience.
Learn more about the NLC Menino Fellowship.