Riley Pierce Email and Phone Number

I have a strong interest in the finance world. My recent summer experience at McCombs Future Executive Academy (UT Austin) further piqued my interest in business entrepreneurship and finance through a college-level research competition. Our six cohorts of nationwide scholars were given the competition’s assignment to compare and advise Boeing and Phillips 66 regarding their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. Beyond squaring the obvious paradox of social responsibility and ‘Big Oil,’ the project would unfold in front of Phillips 66 executives to raise the stakes. After exploring the implications of CSR on corporate profitability, our team dug immediately into published Investment Reports. Although working to normalize these dense, data heavy documents was quite time-consuming and mentally strenuous, the captivating research eventually yielded clarity on a solution. What began as a staged, ‘pressure-cooker’ project environment, ended up sparking several nights of obsessive online researching, passionate diagram construction, and curiosity-filled sessions with Phillips 66 executives. In addition to becoming completely engrossed in a new field of study, I created a finished product to win the highly competitive case study. I also believe that computer science is a gateway to entrepreneurship, which can be a catalyst for progress that shifts economic power from the privileged to the innovative. Throughout high school I have worked toward creating a sports data analytics app by gaining programming knowledge as a coding intern, framing my app’s minimum viable product diagram in a business accelerator program, and normalizing data sets in my independent study. If successful, the app will spread the wealth of college athletics beyond the popular, well-attended sports to those less mainstream. I have pitched this idea to the Southeastern Conference, which has yielded interest. I hope to use computer science and entrepreneurship learnings at MIT to further validate and complete my idea to pursue technological startup ambitions and change the lives of college athletes around the country.Beyond commercial, entrepreneurial passions, I look forward to exploring economically feasible ways to optimize my nonprofit's efforts to end the causes of poverty. Poverty is a complex problem without a straightforward solution. It will take innovative thinking and public-private partnerships to bring about shared economic prosperity in the world. I cannot wait to join MIT's efforts to provide economic and social value to the world around us.