Meet the 2022 Shansi Independent Fellow to the Philippines

We are thrilled to introduce Shansi’s third Independent Fellow, Isaak Cagampang Heller ’22. Isaak will be working for the Philippine branch of Focus on the Global South, an activist think tank that works on the political economy of development, power and democracy.

Isaak Cagampang Heller (he/him) ’22 majored in Mathematics and Economics with a minor in Sociology. However, his passion lies in political economy and political sociology. As part of his Honors Economics research, Isaak studied the effects of political organizing on the structure of online social networks, and the ability of the resulting networks to enable collective action. He has also participated in research on the degree of racial polarization in congressional speeches and the effects of Ebola related quarantines on dropout rates in Sierra Leone. Outside of research, Isaak has worked as a tutor, as a Teaching Fellow for Intermediate Macroeconomics, at Walgreens, and for a startup company that is developing an app designed for organizers working towards political mobilization in underrepresented communities. After graduation as a Shansi Independent Fellow, Isaak will work for the Philippine branch of Focus On The Global South, an activist think tank that works on the political economy of development, power and democracy, and grassroots-based challenges to neoliberalism and Authoritarianism.