Take-home lessons
This is one in a series of profiles showcasing some of Harvard’s stellar graduates. Viridiana Rios is a proud chilanga, or native of Mexico City. She spent her youth traversing her working-class neighborhood on bicycle, just like any other kid. But she was not just any other kid. Rios was preternaturally clever and earned scholarships to the city’s prestigious private schools. “There,” she said, “I became very aware of income inequality.” She studied political science at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. Afterward, she took a job with the Ministry of Social Development and noticed that much of the country’s crime was pointed at Mexico’s poorest people. “It seemed counterintuitive,” she said. “Why weren’t the wealthy being impacted?” Rios, a graduating doctoral student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Government, also is an adviser to Mexico’s minister of finance, with an office overlooking the historic Mexico City Zócalo. She...