ESP Biography



JOSE ESPARZA, Class of 2018 Economics and Mathematics



Major: 14 & 18

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: 2018

Picture of Jose Esparza

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Hello I am an Economics and Mathematics major at MIT. I am originaly from Cd. Juarez, Mexico. I have diverse academic interests including artificial intelligence, theoretical physics, pure and applied mathematics, but my one passion is development economics.

My mission in ESP is to teach high school and middle school students the power social sciences (emphasis on science) have in making a positive impact of the world, and to preach on the importance of rigour in public decision making and analytics.

I emphasize the the word science because economics not only requires mathematical maturity but also scientific rigour and methods.

The areas of development and poverty economics have experienced an increase in rigour roboustness in the past 20 years through the increase in randomized control trials.

I plan to teach mostly economics and development courses (since there is typicaly a low supply of them) in HSSP and Summer ESP programs but I may teach random topics in Spark or Splash. :-)



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S10249: International Development and the Need for Evaluation in HSSP Spring 2016 (Feb. 20, 2016)
Around the world people are fed up with poor education, inadequate healthcare, and poverty. Some of those people have taken it upon themselves to work through governments, businesses, and non-profit organizations to address such misfortunes. In this class, we will learn about the problems these organizations face and explore case studies as a means of evaluation.


S10250: Introduction to Microeconomics in HSSP Spring 2016 (Feb. 20, 2016)
Have you learned calculus and don't know what to do with it? This course will introduce us to microeconomics, the sub-field of economics that studies the decisions individual people or businesses do when facing scarcity. (This is different from macroeconomics which studies how the economy in general works e.g. recessions, inflation, etc.) In this course we will learn the language, concepts , and basic mathematics used in economics to model individuals maximizing their happiness or businesses maximizing their profits. Depending how it goes we might finish with concepts such as game theory.


H9193: Millennium Development Goals in HSSP Spring 2015 (Feb. 21, 2015)
In this 7 week course we will discussing the 8 different Millennium Development Goals. We will analyze the problems at hand, study the progress since the establishment of the goals, and we will discuss the different methods to further address these or other global issues.


H8937: Topics on International Development in Splash 2014 (Nov. 22 - 23, 2014)
Do you want to save the world? We will discuss the current issues around the world that can be addressed by international development work such as poverty, global health issues, education, waste management, etc. And how to address these issues effectively in our modern society through policy and projects. Case studies will focus on Africa, India, and East Asia.