Economics Spotlighted Student: Daniyal Amjad '25

The pandemic took the world by storm while Daniyal Amjad ’25 was attending high school in Pakistan.  At the time he was thinking of medical school, but with Covid everything felt like it was on hold, giving a moment of pause and consideration for a different path.

Daniyal had a friend who had applied to Haverford College who suggested he also apply.  He did some exploring, ended up interviewing with an alum from the 60’s, where he learned about the liberal arts approach to education; to explore and discover topics. This approach to an education won him over.

Fall semester of his First Year, Daniyal took Introduction to Economics but the content didn’t resonate. It wasn’t until his sophomore year when he enrolled in Analytical Methods for Economics with Prof. Lambie-Hanson that the use of economics became clearer, revealing real-world applications.  He likes the answers he gets when applying economics to areas of interest to him.  He also enjoys the mathematical component intertwined in the discipline.  In fact, Daniyal is matriculating with a Minor in Pure Math, in addition to majoring in Economics.

A few favorite classes he’s taken include Prof. Arredondo-Chavez’s Money and Banking, and the Junior Research Seminar on Economic Growth.  How this Professor teaches and imparts the curriculum is a very good fit for Daniyal’s learning style.  He also enjoys the classes he’s taken with Prof. Giri Parameswaran, all of which are math heavy and of particular interest to Daniyal.

For his thesis he is working with Prof. Arredondo-Chavez, where he is looking at the impact that people's personal beliefs about climate change have on the adoption of renewable energy technologies at the county level depending on whether or not they are a mine county.

Internships have enriched Daniyal’s scholarly pursuits. The summer following his sophomore year, he was awarded a Whitehead internship, landing him a summer job in Philadelphia with Health Care Improvement Foundation.  He conducted survey analysis of “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity” data. He also researched and wrote a 20-year performance report for the organization. It was an opportunity to learn about health-care and the non-profit world.

Last summer he interned with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, in the Risk Analysis Unit which supervises financial risks to banks and consumers.  He wrote Market Analysis Reports, performed data analysis for the Quarterly Risk Report, and conducted consumer risk research.

Daniyal is a peer tutor for Haverford’s Office of Academic Resources, has been a teaching assistant in both the Economics and the Mathematics Departments, and works for the Economics Question Center. 

He has a passion for comedy, as he serves as a Leader of the BiCo "Lighted Fools" Improv and Sketch Comedy Group. He was also a part of the "Spotlight Theatre" Club at Haverford where he directed the play "The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged)" his sophomore year.