With a total of 10 years of advising and teaching experience at Cornell, Simon has dedicated his career to the success of students both inside and outside of the classroom. He has developed academic and professional enrichment opportunities while creating a programmatic approach centered on holistic student support. Experienced in mentoring undergraduates from all colleges, his students have been admitted to the most select PhD programs, routinely won the prestigious National Science Foundation fellowship, published in peer-reviewed academic journals, and presented their research at academic conferences across the country. This was accomplished through the cultivation of cross-departmental collaboration with faculty mentors in all majors, as well as offices and departments across campus.
At Cornell, he served as an advisor in the Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives (OADI) and now as an Advising Dean and Administrative Director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program in the College of Arts & Sciences. He also has experience as a graduate teaching assistant for Comparative Politics, International Relations, Comparative Politics of Latin America, Latin American Politics, and Sports and Politics. As a PhD candidate in Cornell’s Department of Government with a focus on racial and ethnic politics, his theoretical training and advising experience prepares him to engage thoughtfully with students and work on creative diversity and inclusion programming to support students from diverse backgrounds.
His research explores South American indigenous social movements and their relationship to natural resource extraction, particularly in Bolivia’s and Ecuador's hydrocarbon-rich Amazon. In addition to being a McNair alum, a first-generation from a low-income and URM community, Simon's extensive doctoral fieldwork in South America helps him leverage unique personal insights and energy to address the academic and social needs of Cornell’s student population.
Simon has served the city of Ithaca on the Greater Ithaca Activities Center’s (GIAC) Board of Directors, as a certified New York State firefighter, working with at-risk youth, and coaching youth and adult boxing at GIAC. He will start his new role as LSSO advisor this week with drop in hours Wednesday and Friday from 1-3 pm starting October 4.
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