Each year, our sophomore Tower Scholars sit down with the NexPoint Tower Scholar seniors to interview them so that they can create a “Senior Spotlight” blog post highlighting the senior’s unique story. Seniors share their journeys to develop a well-informed perspective on policymaking and international affairs through a combination of theory and practice in the program, alongside their multidisciplinary major courses of study. The conversations captured reflect the experience of our scholars and their learnings not only in the Tower Center but at SMU overall.
Zahra Chowdhury ’26 interviewed Reece Iriye ’24 to learn more about his time as a NexPoint Tower Scholar to understand how the program supported and facilitated his interests in understanding how governments approach social media, how data can drive impactful policy, and how to incorporate his policy experiences while working in a more technical field.
A senior graduating in 2024, currently majoring in computational mathematics, data science, and statistics and minoring in computer science and public policy and international affairs, Reece hopes to pursue a career that allows him to combine his experiences working in the tech field with the insights he has gained from studying and researching policy.
Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? How did you hear about SMU?
I am from Las Vegas, Nevada, and I had heard of SMU from a couple of my friends. After I visited and toured SMU, I truly enjoyed it and receiving a scholarship helped confirm my decision to attend SMU. One major reason why I picked SMU is because of the widespread capabilities to choose my degree plan. I initially did not know exactly what I wanted to study, and I ended up choosing a wide stream of majors and minors. I am majoring in math, data science, and statistics, and with minors in computer science and public policy and international affairs through the Tower Scholars Program. While it may seem like an unusual or weird mix of majors and minors, throughout high school, it was always both my STEM- oriented classes and my government classes that I enjoyed. And as time went on, that matriculated into an idea of merging those paths together. Even if I don’t find a career that technically leverages both of those all the time, I’ll be able to really incorporate policy-oriented ideas and the skills that this minor has given me into an actual technical career, which is what I’m considering pursuing after graduation.
What drew you to apply to and join the Tower Scholars Program?
There were several different reasons, but one specific reason was the opportunity to study something that people really weren’t talking about much then, which was the idea of regulation online. I found content, recommendation algorithms, and the ethical nature of them to be quite fascinating and it was something that I really wanted to specialize in and look into as a Tower Scholar. From reading about the Tower Scholars Program, I knew I would not only have the opportunity to explore this interest academically but also through real world experiences like the junior year project and the senior practicum. I thought it was really cool how students had the chance to get placed into their own research project with an organization and work on a policy problem of their choice at that time. I didn’t know it back then, but I would end up enjoying this aspect of the program very much.
What specific opportunity or experience from your time in the Tower Scholars Program has been especially memorable to you?
I would say my senior practicum was a really special experience. While I initially applied to the Tower Scholars Program looking to explore or do something more social media and policy related, my senior practicum wasn’t exactly that. The practicum was by far my favorite part. Being able to have the opportunity to combine my technical experience with my policy knowledge, conduct research at the Stimson Center, and come up with innovative solutions and recommendations that I wouldn’t have thought of was an incredible experience. In addition to my work and research, meeting with extraordinary people and professionals within this space made me aware of positions I had not even known existed, but I am extremely happy and thankful that I was able to do well and gain significant insight from my practicum experience.
Beyond the Tower Scholars Program, what other organizations have you been involved with at SMU?
During my first three years at SMU, I was quite involved with the SMU Student Senate. I had a committee chair position that I really enjoyed, and it was something I got to be really involved with that I did not necessarily think I would be able to get involved in. While I’m no longer in Student Senate due to my academic commitments and schedule, overall, I had a great experience and it was super fun. In addition to Student Senate, I have also had the opportunity to conduct research as a Hamilton Scholar. I’m currently working on a research project titled, “Computing Electrostatics of COVID-19 Proteins with Parallelized Boundary Integral Poisson-Boltzmann Solvers.”
Now that you’re nearing the end of your time as a Tower Scholar, what advice do you have for current or incoming Tower Scholars at SMU?
Leverage your connections! Whether it be developing your connections with the professors in the program or simply talking to your fellow Tower Scholars about your classes, take advantage of the people in this program, their experiences, and their perspectives. Each and every person, whether it be a special guest, professor, or classmate, has special interests and a unique perspective to share and you never know what you’ll learn from your conversations with them. All the teachers in this program really care about you, and really want to push you forward and help you in any way that they can. Leverage those relationships and just get to know them as people, because they’re great people. Another piece of advice I would give is to go to as many Tower Center events as possible! The events are incredibly diverse and encourage you to not only connect with fellow students and faculty but also allow you to make the most of the program and its resources.