Christopher McLaurin

About Christopher

updated 6/2013: Chris McLaurin earned his BA with High Honors in History and a minor in Urban and Community Studies from the University of Michigan in 2009. Originally from Rochester Hills, Michigan, Chris received a scholarship to play linebacker and tight end for the Wolverines. Outside of academics and varsity sports, he founded an organization to provide youth in residential group homes with positive student rolemodels from the university. The program’s participants received firsthand exposureto college life by attending study-skills events, lectures from professors, and sporting events at the university. For his success, he was awarded the Martin Luther King Central Campus Spirit Award in 2008. Following graduation, Chris continued to work with marginalized communities on a Fulbright Scholarship in Johannesburg, South Africa. There, Chris developed a mentorship program with Tomorrow Trust, a South African NGO supporting the self-sustainability of orphaned and vulnerable children. He also contributed to a case study conducted by the United Nations Development Programme and Harvard Law School on the potential for litigation to promote the economic rights of the poor. Following his Fulbright year, he went on to pursue a M.Sc. in Social Policy and Planning at the London School of Economics (LSE). In London, he worked as a Parliamentary Intern with Labour MP Toby Perkins in the House of Commons and as a Public Affairs Intern and Researcher for the RunnymedeTrust, the UK’s leading independent race and ethnicity think tank. After graduatingfrom the LSE, Chris received an internship at the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he worked on issues of workforce development, poverty alleviation, child nutrition, and civil rights at the White House under Racquel Russell, Special Assistant to the President for Mobility and Opportunity.
During his Luce Year, Chris worked for a state-owned private equity called the Liang Jiang New Area Innovation and Start-up Investment and Development Corp Ltd. as a project manager. He managed the establishment of an Hungarian-Chinese Automotive Research and Development Joint Venture and the acquisition of an American bus company. He also worked closely with the Chongqing Science and Technology Committee and their financing companies to integrate global technology, brands, and human talents into China’s third New Area program for urban-ruralreform. He also spent his time learning Chinese, organizing Chongqing’s first American football team and China’s first American football league.