ASC Student Nima Dahir Named Beinecke Scholar

The Ohio State University
Friday, May 8, 2015

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Nima Dahir, a junior honors student majoring in economics and mathematics, has been named a 2015 Beinecke Scholar. The Beinecke Scholarship is awarded to 20 students nationwide who have demonstrated superior standards of intellectual ability, scholastic achievement and personal promise.

Beinecke Scholars must be current college juniors with plans to pursue a terminal degree in the arts, humanities or social sciences. The award provides $34,000 to support graduate studies.

The daughter of Somali immigrants, Dahir was born in Toronto, Ontario, and moved to Ohio. She graduated from Hilliard Bradley High School and came to Ohio State as a Morrell Scholar. Her goal is to acquire the academic skills that will allow her to inform economic and public policy as a development economist.

For the past two years, Dahir has been developing an independent research project in experimental economics under the guidance of Katherine Coffman, associate professor, economics, who is advising her on the relationship between optimism and willingness to borrow microfinance loans.

“I have known Nima since the spring of 2013,” said Coffman. “She stands out as an undergraduate in that her interest in research stems largely from her deeply-rooted desire to find ways to improve economic and social conditions in developing communities.”

An honors student, Dahir also serves as a research assistant to Economics Professor Bruce Weinberg.

“I met Nima when she took my small, highly-interactive, upper-level undergraduate research class in fall 2014,” said Weinberg. “Even in this exceptional group, she distinguished herself.”

Outside the classroom, Dahir is a Buckeye Leadership Fellow, a volunteer and board member for the Broad Street Food Pantry and the past editor of the Journal of Politics and International Affairs. She has also studied abroad in Morocco and volunteered teaching English to young girls in Somalia.

After graduation, Nima plans to obtain her PhD in economics and pursue a career in academia, conducting experimental economics research related to development.

“She is driven by a concrete, compelling interest in using her skills to address pressing social problems,” Weinberg said. “She has all the makings of a dynamic and effective teacher and she is preparing herself to be able to impact policy as well as the scholarly literature through her service work and leadership training.”

Since 1975, the Beinecke Scholarships Program has selected more than 570 college juniors from more than 100 different undergraduate institutions for support during graduate study. Dahir is the fifth Ohio State student to be named a Beinecke Scholar.

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