As part of his fellowship, Christopher Baidoo will examine initiatives in Massachusetts aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse in the digital world. Courtesy photo.
He鈥檚 earned a Juris Doctor and a master鈥檚 degree in social work. He鈥檚 authored six peer-reviewed papers covering topics such as the experiences of Puerto Rican youth displaced by Hurricane Maria and the impact of skin tone on sentencing in the U.S. criminal justice system. And he鈥檚 an active member of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the National Association of Social Workers.聽
Now, Christopher Baidoo, a doctoral candidate at the Boston College School of Social Work, can add another accomplishment to his curriculum vitae: recipient of a from the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, a research and policy center at Harvard University that encourages graduate students to spend part of their careers in public service.
For the next two months, Baidoo will team up with the , which works to ensure that youth receive quality care from state agencies. In particular, he will examine initiatives in Massachusetts aimed at protecting children from sexual abuse in the digital world, focusing on issues such as online grooming and exposure to inappropriate content. At the end of his fellowship, he will present policy recommendations to his supervisor to help end the sexual abuse of children online.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a good marriage of my skill set because I鈥檓 having to research laws and look at legislation,鈥� says Baidoo, 笔丑顿鈥�26, who studies the ways in which public policies affect marginalized populations. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 also using my quantitative and social science research skills and looking at what鈥檚 been published in the academic research in this area and what works and what doesn鈥檛 work, and then ultimately making recommendations to the state about what it can do differently and borrowing things that other states have done that seem to be effective.鈥�
Baidoo credits his academic experiences at 海角社区SSW with helping him earn the fellowship, which was awarded to 20 students from 10 universities this year.聽
He says one course, Data Analytics for Social Impact, led by Professor Summer Sherburne Hawkins, taught him how to harness the power of data to solve social problems. He also points to his partnership with Assistant Professor Vincent Fusaro, who examines policies and programs that affect the economic and material well-being of low-income households in the U.S. as a formative experience that gave him the confidence to conduct original policy research.聽
鈥淎t my fellowship, I鈥檓 able to digest research, make sense of it in a quick way, then aggregate information from different studies to generate recommendations,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ven though I鈥檓 working on a different subject matter, the methods that we鈥檙e using are similar, so I鈥檓 able to interpret the results from the studies I鈥檓 looking at and then use that knowledge to help the agency.鈥�
“It鈥檚 a good marriage of my skill set because I鈥檓 having to research laws and look at legislation. But I鈥檓 also using my quantitative and social science research skills and looking at what鈥檚 been published in the academic research in this area and what works and what doesn鈥檛 work, and then ultimately making recommendations to the state about what it can do differently.”
Baidoo might not have received this fellowship鈥攐r even found his way to 海角社区SSW鈥攊f he hadn鈥檛 made a pivotal career decision about three years ago.
Before enrolling at 海角社区SSW in 2022, Baidoo spent 11 years at California Western School of Law, working his way up from assistant director of admissions to chief of staff. As chief of staff, Baidoo led institutional research efforts, a position in which he used data to enhance student outcomes.
While Baidoo valued the importance of this work, he also felt a pull to make a fuller use of his academic background in law and social work.聽
鈥淚 was sitting on this skill set that could potentially have a big impact in the real world,鈥� he recalls, 鈥渁nd I felt like I wasn鈥檛 using myself to the maximum potential.鈥�
Baidoo began pursuing PhD programs in social work, with the end goal of becoming a professor who conducts research to drive policy change. He chose 海角社区SSW after a careful search of top-ranked programs around the country.聽
鈥淏oston College is highly ranked and has good faculty,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd I just felt like it was a good marriage for me and them and I had some good conversations with people at the School in the process.鈥� 聽
Following his fellowship, Baidoo plans to focus squarely on his dissertation at 海角社区SSW. Specifically, he鈥檚 examining how legal interventions affect fatal encounters with police and evaluating the effectiveness of various legal strategies in reducing racial disparities in these incidents.
Baidoo says that his fellowship will help guide his work, noting that it will give him insight into how to translate complex concepts into easy-to-understand language for policymakers.聽
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want my research to stop with publications,鈥� he says. I want to be able to digest my findings into simpler terms that are understandable to legislators and policymakers who I鈥檓 trying to influence.鈥�