Alumni-in-Residence: Sign Up for Office Hours with Elaine Vilorio '17 of Year Up United

The Loeb Center's Alumni-in-Residence program is excited to offer 1-on-1, in-person, informational office hours appointments with Elaine Vilorio '17.

Elaine Vilorio '17 is an Associate Director of Research & Evaluation for Year Up United, a national workforce development nonprofit that offers free job training programs to young adults as alternatives to a college education. She finds these programs to be essential for two reasons: first, because many brilliant young people can’t afford college or attend colleges like Amherst College, which offers generous financial aid packages; and second, because she believes there should be other accessible pathways for people to enter the workforce. As a social science researcher and evaluator, Elaine collects and analyzes qualitative and quantitative data on Year Up United's job training programs, ultimately in service of one central research question: Are these programs helping young adults, most of whom come from low-income backgrounds, obtain careers that pay them a livable wage?

Previously, Elaine performed research and evaluation work within the policy areas of homelessness, higher education, and affordable housing. At Amherst College, Elaine double majored in Black Studies and Latin American and Latinx Studies, an interdisciplinary major she designed because, during her time at Amherst, there was no Latinx & Latin American Studies major. She later completed a fully-funded two-year post-baccalaureate program at Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, known as the Research Scholar Initiative. She initially intended to use this program to enter a Ph.D. program in economics or sociology before deciding that she preferred to do applied research, which is research conducted in the service of, and from within, nonprofits, government, and philanthropic bodies, as opposed to a college or university.

Elaine immigrated from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. in the second grade and grew up in Section 8 housing in northern New Jersey. These experiences of poverty and immigration have significantly shaped her career. Based in New York City, she believes time outside of work is just as critical as time at work, and enjoys reading fiction, weightlifting and sprinting, dancing bachata, cooking, getting enough sleep, and laughing with people who are precious to her.
 

Alumni-in-Residence office hours appointments are available on a first-come, first-served basis to current sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Submit your resume today to sign up for a time slot – and/or register for one of our group events, which are open to ALL class years!