Kyle Lauckner never wanted to stop being a Boy Scout. That’s why he’s working toward a career in the federal government focused on poverty alleviation. For Lauckner, a Notre Dame junior majoring in economics and political science, both pursuits are all about service. And a new program is helping him understand how being an economist can help him continue to live out his Scout Oath “to help other people at all times.” The evidence-based poverty alleviation concentration (EBPAC), a collaboration between the Department of Economics and the University of Notre Dame Poverty Initiative, is designed to train students in poverty research and guide them into careers addressing poverty. “Ultimately, we’re doing this work because everybody has innate value and dignity.” - Adrienne Judson, assistant teaching professor of economics “Scouting America cultivated my passion for civic service and being involved in my community,” said Lauckner, who’s part of EBPAC’s first cohort. “EBPAC prepares me for a job where I’m able to implement policy that really helps people’s lives.” The concentration is one way students can get involved in the Poverty Initiative’s Poverty Research Fellows (PRF) Program, a community of students who are passionate about understanding and addressing poverty. While EBPAC is only for economics and international economics majors, PRF is available to all undergraduates. “If we really want to make a dent on poverty in the world, we don’t just need to be doing research now,” said Adrienne Judson, assistant teaching professor of economics and director of the concentration. “We need to be equipping the next generation of people who are going to rise up and do this work in the future.” Poverty isn’t a new problem — for hundreds of years, people have been designing programs meant to alleviate poverty, often relying on anecdotal or theoretical evidence, Judson said. But it hasn’t been until recent decades that economists and policymakers have had the statistical...