People

Ethan Yang ‘20 - Executive Director and Founder

Ethan was a Political Science major, minoring in Legal Studies and Formal Organizations. His hometown is Burbank, California. He held a variety of student leadership positions on campus and served as the Center’s first Student Fellow President. He also served as the Students for Liberty Northeast Regional Coordinator and was named a SFL Global Top Leader for Fiscal Year of 2020. He is currently an Adjunct Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research and attends law school in Washington, DC specializing in antitrust law. He is also currently a Google Public Policy Fellow, legal intern at the Federal Trade Commission, and a co-author of a forthcoming book on Chinese political economy. During His work has been featured in various outlets from TV, to online media to radio broadcasts.

Andrew Akbari ‘23 - Student Fellow Treasurer

Andrew is a Washington, DC native and a member of the Class of 2023. He is an Economics major with a minor in Formal Organizations. Andrew enjoys reading the Wall Street Journal and Wall Street stories. Andrew is also a member of the Trinity College investment club.

Vaden Scott ‘23 - Student Fellow Secretary

Vaden Scott is a current junior from Atlanta, Georgia. She is an Economics major with a minor in Formal Organizations with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. She is a member of the Trinity College Equestrian team and the IVY Society. An avid outdoorswoman, Vaden holds the distinction of having summited the vaunted Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. In addition to this, she was once a finalist for the qualifying round of American Ninja Warrior, missing the qualifying cut by one spot.

Zoë Sylvester-Chin - Student Fellow

Zoë is a Junior majoring in Economics with a minor in Formal Organizations. She has explored her interest in finance as an Analyst in the Student Investment Fund and a member of the Student Government Association’s Budget Committee— as well as in her previous internships at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Franklin Templeton Investments. She looks forward to further pursuing this interest as a 2022 Investment Banking Summer Analyst at Morgan Stanley. On campus, Zoë is also an Associate at the Career Center, a member of the Academic Honor Council, a Student Representative on the Task Force for the Status of Women at Trinity College, and a member of the Ulmus Literary Society. One of her proudest achievements is being the Founding President of Trinity’s chapter of The Women’s Network, a nationwide professional organization. Zoë is also a four-time Junior Olympic fencer, and she toured Iceland as a Clarinetist in Phillips Academy Andover’s Concert Band!

Dr. Edward Stringham - Faculty Fellow

Edward Peter Stringham is the Davis Professor of Economic Organizations and Innovation at Trinity. Stringham is editor of the Journal of Private Enterprise, past president of the American Institute for Economic Research, past president of the Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, and past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education. He is editor of two books and author of more than seventy journal articles, book chapters, and policy studies. His work has been discussed on more than 100 broadcast stations, including CBS, CNBC, CNN, Headline News, NPR, and MTV. A frequent guest on Fox and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal , in 2016 Rise Global ranked Stringham as the 77th most influential economist. His book, Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life, is published by Oxford University Press.

Casey Habegger ‘23 - Student Fellow President

Casey is an economics and human rights major and a formal organizations minor from Scituate, MA. In addition to being a student fellow with the Mark Twain Center, Casey also dances with Trinity College Dance Company, is a captain of the Trinity Club Tennis Team, serves as a tour guide for the admissions office, and is a member of the Stella Society. Last summer Casey interned at the Cato Institute with the Center for Educational Freedom. After Trinity, Casey plans to go onto a career in venture capital and social entrepreneurship.

Jay Park ‘22 - Student Fellow Outreach Chair

Jay is a current senior on track to graduate with a B.A. in Political Science and Hispanic Studies with a minor in English Rhetoric. He is very involved on campus, working as a student associate at the Career and Life Design Center, volunteering as a Teaching Assistant for the Public Policy and Law department, and serving as the Alumni Relations Chair for the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He spent the summer of 2021 working on the Taxable Fixed Income Asset Management team at Brown Brothers Harriman as a summer credit analyst. He is currently writing his senior thesis on the effect of Peronismo on the recovery efforts of Argentina post-COVID.

Gordy Leech ‘23 - Student Fellow

Gordy is a student from Milwaukee, Wisconsin intending to major in economics and a minor in Formal Organizations. Gordy has a strong interest in Austrian Economics and Value-Based investing. He currently serves as the second Student Fellow President at the Mark Twain Center since inception, as well as also participating in Trinity College's Investment Club. 

Antonio Guirola ‘22 - Student Fellow

Antonio is a double major in Political Science and Middle East Studies. His hometown is Douglaston, New York. He is interested in international political economy and foreign relations. When not in the classroom, Antonio is a member of the Men's Crew Team and works as a Resident Assistant in a mostly upperclassmen dormitory. He also serves on the Trinity College Honor Council hearing cases of academic dishonesty, and on EAC Barnyard planning college spirit events. He is a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity on campus and serves as their Recruitment Chair. After Trinity, he hopes to obtain a dual JD-MA in Foreign Affairs. 

Maahin Gulati - Student Fellow

Maahin is a senior majoring in Economics and is from Weston, Massachusetts. He is a member of the men’s golf team, was named 2nd Team All-NESCAC and 1st Team All-Academic in the 2021 season, and participated in DIII NCAA championships in West Virginia. Additionally, this semester, Maahin is working in the Career Development Center as an Associate, helping students with their resumes, and navigating the recruiting process for junior year internships. Lastly, he is a member of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity. Maahin has internship experience working at QuickBase, Casa Verde Capital, and most recently, BNY Mellon. He plans to move to San Francisco in early August to begin his full-time job with Cowen, working in their Investment Banking division, specifically on their consumer cannabis team.

Olivia Barden ’21 - Alumni Relations Chair

Olivia is a Trinity College graduate from New Canaan, Connecticut. She earned a B.A. degree, Phi Beta Kappa, in Economics with a minor in Formal Organizations and a concentration in Entrepreneurship. Olivia served as the Center’s first Events Chair, as well as the Treasurer and Philanthropy Chair of The IVY Society. Olivia currently works at BlackRock in New York City as an analyst in the Financial Institutions Group.

Isabelle Yonce ‘23- Student Fellow Events Chair

Isabelle is a member of the class of 2023 and is from Hamilton, MA. She is an Art History major and a Formal Organizations with a concentration in Entrepreneurship minor. Isabelle is a member of the Trinity Women’s Lacrosse team and the IVY Society. This summer, Isabelle is an intern at Fingerprint Communications, a public relations firm based in Los Angeles. Throughout her time at Trinity, Isabelle has volunteered for the Greater Hartford Arts Council, serving as a research intern, and also volunteers for Inner-City lacrosse, a non-profit dedicated to bringing lacrosse to underprivileged youths in New Haven and Hartford. After Trinity, she hopes to combine her passion for art with her interest in finance by pursuing a career in art advisory and financing.

Chance Perekslis ‘23 - Student Fellow

Chance grew up on a farm in Millerton, New York. Growing up on a farm allowed him to learn through hands on experience as he had the freedom to explore his interests. For this reason, he developed a passion for engineering early on in life as he loved to repair vehicles and plan construction projects. He joined the Mark Twain Center as he believes it is important to promote conversations between undergraduate students and experts in academia, business, and entrepreneurship. Students should connect more with the world outside of the education system as we must be open minded to the intelligent ideas of others.

Dr. John Alcorn - Faculty Fellow

John Alcorn teaches Italian history and culture.  He has a weakness for unique acoustic guitars and enjoys long walks with his beloved catahoula leopard dog, Copper. His research interests range from the poetry of Dante Alighieri (La Divina Commedia) and Giacomo Leopardi (Canti) to the foundations of the social sciences - methodological individualism, motivations, social mechanisms - and the history of Sicily, peasant unrest, migration, and Mafia. When not working on things Italian, Professor Alcorn organizes Trinity's "Inside the Music" series of workshops/concerts by contemporary artists.  John Scofield, Soulive, Medeski Martin & Wood, Gov't Mule, and the Derek Trucks Band have appeared in the series. He received his BA, MA, M.Phil, and Ph.D from Columbia University.