Jason Gonzalez stands in front of New Haven, a city that is home to Yale, while wearing his Yale University gear. Taking advantage of the resources provided on campus, Gonzalez now feels confident in his choices.
Gonzalez finds what means the most to him at Yale
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First, it was pre-med, then computer science (CS), and now it felt like another major. It seemed to be a rabbit-hole, full of spiraling paths that were not set for him. Reaching out to his fellow upper-classmen, he gained a few pieces of advice, yet, there seemed to be no escape to the treacherous anxiety of his future.
After graduating from the school in 2020, alumnus Jason Gonzalez exposed himself to many majors and information that would help him find his interests at Yale university. However, the road to where he is now was not that simple, whether it was through finding majors or through discovering his passions.
“I tried many things to see what I liked.” Gonzalez said. “Participating in 10 to 15 clubs, I ultimately stuck with five. I was able to discover my passions by finding what I liked through what I didn’t like.”
During high school, Gonzalez believed pursuing pre-med would be his best option, so he took all the Advanced Placement classes he could to build his knowledge on science. But soon after, Gonzalez did not enjoy pre-med as much as he expected, then turned to CS.
“I liked the idea of pre-med and giving back, but I didn’t think the additional eight years of schooling, residency, etc. were great for me.” Gonzalez said. “Soon after, I fell in love with the realms of economics and CS, deciding to pursue a major in them. I hoped that CS would give me the qualitative and quantitative edge for pursuing projects.”
Nonetheless, CS did not seem like the ideal major for Gonzalez. Looking for paths that would truly interest and engage him, he began looking into statistics, where he would be able to work with data sets.
“After working with statistics, I found that the bridge between statistics and economics is super fascinating and connects things I love together—using statistical models for prediction while not giving up the economic aspect.”
Enjoying both economics and statistics, Gonzalez became involved in multiple projects related to his majors, such as the Mentorship Project, a non-profit organization that seeks to close the achievement gap, managing stocks, and pitching strategies to panels of judges.
