As an undergraduate, Eliot is already working at a professional level through his job as an Information Technology Support Specialist at UC San Diego’s IT Services Department. This work involves supporting faculty, staff and students by deploying systems and providing technical support across campus. He has learned to “operate under real constraints, coordinate with colleagues across departments, and contribute meaningfully to systems that thousands of people depend on daily.”

Eliot grew up splitting his time between two households, and observed early on how “circumstance shapes opportunity.” His mother had come to this country as a refugee from Vietnam and this inspired him to get involved in the San Diego Refugee Tutoring program while still In high school. He worked consistently with a ten-year-old Pashtun boy and developed a curriculum for him using games and storytelling, which drove home the value of personalized, sustained support.

At UC San Diego he has focused on machine learning, and sees AI “not as an end in itself, but as a tool for building things that serve people, particularly in education.” His desire to apply his major towards supporting students who can most benefit from individualized instruction comes from this understanding of how volunteer tutoring programs can make a big difference to those who can’t afford expensive enrichment programs. Eliot believes that for “students from under-resourced communities, refugee backgrounds, or financially constrained households” this kind of technology could be “transformative.” He is enrolled in Sixth College.