The New Crew

The 2023-24 Ledecky Undergraduate Fellows. 

Aden Barton and Isabella Cho

Photograph by Stu Rosner

Harvard Magazine welcomes Aden Barton ’24 and Isabella Cho ’24 to its editorial staff as the 2023-2024 Berta Greenwald Ledecky Undergraduate Fellows. Starting in the November-December issue, they will alternate as authors of the “Undergraduate” column, contributing articles in print and online about aspects of Harvard life.

Barton, of Nashville, is concentrating in economics with a minor in history. He’s served as a Crimson editor, columnist, and editorial board member, and in fall 2022 wrote a series of columns called “Harvard in Numbers,” exploring ideas about the University and higher education such as grade inflation and the societal significance of elite institutions versus community colleges. He has worked as a research assistant to Jason Furman, Aetna professor in the practice of economic policy, and previously interned at the American Enterprise Institute’s poverty studies department and in the office of Tennessee Congressman Jim Cooper. Since April 2022, he has been a writing and editing intern for the political newsletter Full Stack Economics. This past summer, he was an investment associate intern at Bridgewater Associates.

Cho, of Wilmette, Illinois, is an English literature concentrator with interests that straddle the humanities, arts, law, and technology. She has served as a Crimson reporter, editor, and news executive, covering Harvard’s central administration and writing investigations and personal essays for Fifteen Minutes, the Crimson’s magazine. She was on the Harvard Advocate’s poetry and executive boards and has earned Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Radcliffe Institute arts fellowships. She’s held leadership positions in The Policy Program, an undergraduate-run think tank, and in the Phillips Brooks House Association’s Small Claims Advisory Service. Cho spent the summer as a multimedia journalism fellow in the Asian American Journalists Association’s VOICES program.

The fellowships are supported by Jonathan J. Ledecky ’79, M.B.A. ’83, and named in honor of his late mother. For updates on past Ledecky Fellows and links to their work, see harvardmag.com/ledecky.

Related topics

You might also like

Harvard Alumni and Faculty Win Five Pulitzer Prizes

Winners include Jill Lepore, Bess Wohl, and Pablo Torre.

Lafayette’s Unexpected Gift to George Washington: Pheasants

The two birds will be on display at Harvard this summer.

Government Seeks to Move Funding Case to Contracts Court

In a new appellate brief, the Trump administration shifts its argument for rescinding Harvard’s grants.

Most popular

AI Outperforms Doctors in Emergency Room Tasks, New Harvard Study Shows

Researchers say the technology could help physicians with triage, diagnosis.

Ask a Harvard Professor with Rebecca Henderson

How to reform capitalism to confront climate change and extreme inequality, with economist and McArthur University Professor Rebecca Henderson

Martin Nowak Placed on Leave a Second Time

Further links to Jeffrey Epstein surface in newly released files.

Explore More From Current Issue

A man holding a revolver and lantern, wearing a hat and coat, appears to be walking cautiously.

Scoundrels, Then and Now

On con men, Mark Twain, and the powers of the Harvard name

Historical scene depicting a parade with soldiers and a town square in the background.

When the Revolution Hit Cambridge, Harvard Moved to Concord

College students broke hearts and windows during their year in exile.

Colorful illustrated map of Colonial Cambridge and the Harvard College campus featuring buildings of the campus, houses, Cambridge Common, and the Charles River

250 Years Ago, Harvard Was Home to a Revolution

A look at the sights, sounds, and characters that put the University on the frontlines of history