For Myles Brady, the Social Sciences Summer Academic Enrichment Program played a critical role in his university success. The first in his family to attend a four-year institution, the honors undergrad says one of his biggest challenges was learning how to navigate the college environment and utilize resources with no direct family member experience from which to draw. When he enrolled in SAEP in 2011, he found the support he’d been looking for.

The five-week intensive residential program provides first generation university students an opportunity to pursue advanced research and develop critical communication skills necessary for graduate education. It also provides participants a unique opportunity to bond with other motivated students and develop close ties with renowned faculty experts in the social sciences.

For Brady, a double business economics and anthropology major, the program spurred an interest in research, specifically on how individuals respond to incentives and constraints. His work received funding support from the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program and he presented his findings at the annual symposium this year. The work also contributed to his honors economics thesis, an econometric analysis of the mortgage broker industry analyzing the relationship between occupational licensing regulations and labor market employment outcomes, an accomplishment which, along with completing SAEP, is among his best memories from his years at UCI.

Brady was twice named the Outstanding Scholar in his Kappa Sigma Fraternity. He volunteered regularly through the UCI chapter of Reach Out and Read Orange County as a reader to youth in Costa Mesa pediatric clinics. He also served in the UCI Learning and Academic Resource Center (LARC) as a veteran tutor for micro-economics. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society and the recipient of the 2012 David Rosten International Education & Service Scholarship.

With the Rosten Award, he plans to lay the foundation for a new chapter of moneythink at UCI. The non-profit organization was founded by one of his high school friends and encourages college students to teach financial literacy in their surrounding communities through a variety of activities. UCI would mark the 18th university chapter of the growing organization.

Brady will graduate in June with cum laude Latin honors and plans to work in the financial services sector.

-Heather Wuebker, Social Sciences Communications

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