Carly Benson ('24)

Carly Benson (BK ’24) is a sophomore from Pasadena, Texas studying Statistics and Data Science. Broadly, she is interested in looking beyond standardized testing and finding ways to use data to improve education. She also enjoys working with children! Carly taught violin in high school, and she now works with New Haven public school students through YETI (Yale Education & Tutoring Initiative). It is very important to her to be involved in something she believes will have a positive impact on the world.

Carly has always enjoyed her Ed Studies classes, but she’s particularly loved Language and Mind—a cross-listed linguistics course which she described as “crazy” but “SO fun”—and Comparative International Education. Some of her favorite YES memories so far have been with her EDST 110 section and her current cohort of Scholars. “I’ve always felt very welcomed by the Ed Studies community,” she says. “I think that we have a diverse set of backgrounds and opinions and interests…but we have a common set of values, and we really enact those things.”

In the future, Carly imagines herself continuing to dive into the field of education. “I absolutely see myself trying to make some sort of impact in the education field,” she says, “that could be teaching, it could be somewhere else; but, absolutely, that’s what I want to do.” Until then, though, she looks forward to the rest of her time in the YES program, and she can’t wait for the day she finally gets another cat. “Pepper [her current cat] needs a brother. His name will be Jack.”