26-year-old Beninese student, Patrice Mahounan Yedomiffi has been accepted to pursue a PhD in Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Patrice obtained his Master’s degree in Mathematics, Economics and Statistics (MMES) on December 2016 from the African School of Economics (ASE), a Pan-African university based in Benin.

“I applied to the Department of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign because it is one of the best departments in the world for Development Economics”, says Patrice. He adds, “I owe this admission to the ASE, which through its training has given me a strong theoretical and practical background in Economics, both elements that have played a role in my acceptance to my dream university. Also, studying at ASE gave me the opportunity to perfect my English which has opened up more doors for me in the world”.

Whilst at ASE, Patrice has worked on various projects conducted by the Institute for Empirical Research in Political Economy (IERPE), one of the research centers hosted by ASE. Some of these projects were related to local elections, local governance and currently Mathematics education in Beninese high-schools. Currently, he is working as a research assistant for a Youth Employment project born out of a partnership between ASE and the World Bank.