JPAL
Introduction
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) is a global research center based at MIT that works to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by rigorous scientific evidence. J-PAL is anchored by a network of more than 1,100 researchers at universities around the world who conduct randomized impact evaluations to test the effectiveness of social programs and policies aimed at reducing poverty.
Problem Statement
The New York City Youth Employment Program serves thousands of youth annually, but many participants struggle to secure quality letters of recommendation that could significantly impact their future educational and career opportunities. Program coordinators and participating employers face substantial administrative burdens when tasked with writing personalized recommendation letters, often resulting in generic, delayed, or incomplete letters that fail to effectively advocate for participants. This creates a bottleneck that limits youth access to higher education, job opportunities, and other advancement pathways, while simultaneously making it difficult for J-PAL researchers to conduct rigorous evaluations on the impact of recommendation letters due to inconsistent letter quality and availability across the program.
Our Solution
We're developing an automated letter of recommendation system for J-PAL that streamlines the process of generating high-quality, personalized recommendation letters for NYC Youth Employment Program participants. The system sends targeted surveys to participating employers and program coordinators, collecting specific data about each youth participant's performance, skills, and achievements. Using this survey data, our software automatically generates professional, tailored recommendation letters that highlight each participant's unique strengths and experiences. This solution not only reduces administrative burden on employers and program staff, but also ensures consistent, high-quality letters for all participants while enabling J-PAL researchers to conduct randomized controlled trials measuring the causal impact of recommendation letters on educational and employment outcomes for underprivileged youth.
