group of students

Our Students

In Conversation.

Elmir Mukhtarov, MPA ’24

Community Profile January 24, 2024

#PolicyProfile: Elmir Mukhtarov, MPA ’24

“In 2014, I came to the U.S. as a high school exchange student as part of the Future Leaders Exchange program in New York. At the age of 18, I realized the profound differences between the economy, politics, and the overall society of the U.S. and my home country of Azerbaijan. Intrigued by these differences, I started studying economics at Baku Engineering University. I later worked at the Center for Economic and Social Development, a leading economic think tank in Azerbaijan. My work there focused on Azerbaijan’s economic topics, such as state finance and international trade. In 2018, I started writing about policy issues that interested me.

Funke Aderonmu, MPA ’24

Community Profile January 10, 2024

#PolicyProfile: Funke Aderonmu, MPA ’24

“Before coming to Princeton, I was a contractor with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), focusing on food security and resilience issues. Our team worked with many partners across Africa, Central America, and Southeast Asia to help improve their investments in agricultural development and reduce hunger and malnutrition. My previous roles centered more on policy research and advocacy, including two years at the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. There, I worked on several economic and social policy issues, primarily to promote racial and economic equity. I developed a real interest in public policy as an undergrad at…

Sergio Rodriguez Camarena, MPA ’24

Community Profile October 16, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Sergio Rodriguez Camarena, MPA ’24

“I grew up undocumented in the U.S. for nearly 20 years, which informed how I navigated the world and the spaces I could occupy. When I was growing up, higher education was inaccessible for many undocumented students like me. Public universities in California categorized undocumented students as international students and denied them in-state tuition rates, making higher education financially impossible. Through @QuestBridge, I was awarded a full four-year scholarship to @PomonaCollege, eliminating the financial obstacle and making it possible for me to pursue higher education.

Community Profile June 23, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Amanda Stark MPP ’23

“From a young age, I had a strong sense of fairness. This drove me to study law at the University of Auckland. I saw this as a practical way to have an impact on justice and equity issues. I’ve always been fascinated by the world beyond Aotearoa, New Zealand, and different peoples and cultures. An internship with the New Zealand Aid Programme combined these interests and turned into a ten-year career at the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT). Most of my work supported aid and development engagement with partners in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. I also served as a diplomat in Cairo, covering political, trade, and security issues…

Ashley Stracke MPP '23

Community Profile June 02, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Ashley Stracke MPP ’23

“When I was a kid, I had a front-row seat to see how many families who had someone with special needs ended up struggling and how the government often provided them with a lifeline and support in one way or another. It inspired me to go into public service, and I moved from Texas to Los Angeles to study at USC. From the moment I went to LA, I fell in love with the city and wanted to give back in some way. I began working for the City of Los Angeles in 2008 and spent most of my career working in the office of Mayor Eric Garcetti."

Mayu Takeuchi '23

Community Profile May 26, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Mayu Takeuchi ’23

“I'd never been in student government before Princeton, but Undergraduate Student Government has been a really defining part of my experience here. It's been a great chance to mentor younger students and empower them to be leaders. I served as sustainability chair for 2021 to be in this central role within the USG, where I could coordinate with groups across campus and work with administrators to advance real change in terms of sustainability on campus. From there, I felt like there was more to be done, and I decided to run to serve as student body president in December 2021. I ran with a focus on improving student well being — specifically mental…

Community Profile May 12, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Kanishkh Kanodia '23

“Ever since I picked up a newspaper for the first time, I was interested in reading the foreign affairs section or the world section, and that made me start to think about issues globally. My interest in international politics and human rights gradually grew during my freshman year at SPIA when I took a class on these issues, read accounts by journalists reporting on war crimes and genocides, and realized how important their work is in helping us uncover the truth in all these complex political dynamics. At the end of that semester, in December 2019, there were massive protests happening in India against the Citizenship Amendment Act, which basically…

Community Profile May 05, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Ryan Sasse MPA '23

“I was in high school in South Florida when I first became involved in political advocacy, specifically after Proposition 8 was passed in California. I came out when I was 15, right as the debate around marriage equality was gaining national attention, and I became inspired to host an anti-discrimination event at my high school themed around the No H8 Campaign.

Community Profile April 28, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Inderjeet Singh MPP '23

“My father was the first literate person in the family, and when I went to college in Delhi, that was still uncommon in our family at that time. My grandparents migrated to India from Pakistan. They were landless laborers, tending somebody else's fields and struggling for their meals every day. But they understood that education could bring career advancement and prosperity.

Community Profile April 21, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Olesya Shmagun MPP '23

“I was born and raised in Russia and was lucky to be born during a short democratic period. From an early age, I heard how important democratic institutions are, and for me, media was a way of doing public service to my community. When I joined the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in 2015, it still was quite a small organization, mostly covering Eastern European countries like Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova — countries considered to be highly corrupt. However, our stories about international money laundering often showed that Western countries provided the necessary infrastructure for kleptocrats from countries like mine. In 2016…

Community Profile April 14, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Kate Johnston MPP '23

“After receiving my graduate degree from King's College London, I traveled through the Middle East, from Istanbul through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, the OPTs, and Israel to Tel Aviv. I fell in love with the region and always wanted to return. I had that opportunity when I started working for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). My first job in the FCDO was managing the Conflict, Security and Stability Fund for the Middle East, which supported countries at risk of conflict, experiencing conflict, and post-conflict reconstruction.

Community Profile April 07, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Umer Siddique MPP '23

“My fascination with diplomacy stems from growing up at a time when many global events were taking place all around me. Perhaps that led to my desire to travel and experience the world. I think when you live in a new place and immerse yourself in its culture and environment, you inevitably transform and acquire something meaningful to bring back with you. It's a journey of self-enrichment and perhaps self-discovery as well. I’ve worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan for nearly 16 years, including diplomatic assignments at Pakistan’s Mission to the United Nations in New York, working in Turkey, and traveling to several other parts of…

Madison Mellinger pictured while traveling

Community Profile March 31, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Madison Mellinger '23

“Having a mother who completed college online while I was in middle school greatly impacted how I view the immense value of education and the on-campus experience. Being from an under-resourced rural community, I don't think I would've been motivated to apply to a place like Princeton if I didn't have her example. I’ve since had so many opportunities to meet new people and learn about new cultures, as well as tell stories about my own rural upbringing, raising pheasants and turkeys, training hunting dogs, and hunting in South Central Pennsylvania. A lot of the work I've done at Princeton focuses on education access and policy as it relates to rural…

Community Profile March 24, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Will Feeney MPP '23

"As a child, I loved trains and found it frustrating that MARTA — the mass transit system in Atlanta — didn't come to my house. As I got older and started commuting, I learned about urban planning, and though the way Atlanta is set up is typical for a lot of American cities, it's not typical for human beings. I went to the University of Virginia to study both government and urban planning, and after graduating, I moved to Washington, D.C. with the eventual goal of working on Capitol Hill. I applied for and received an internship in Congressman John Lewis’s office, and they hired me a few months later. Transportation, education, immigration, and foster…

Yamini Sarangi MPP '23 outside of SPIA

Community Profile March 17, 2023

#PolicyProfile: Yamini Sarangi MPP '23

“I spent the initial nine years of my career working in some of the most remote tribal-dominated areas in the state of Odisha in India. My work was primarily in development and revenue administration with the goal of implementing various state government projects. Many of these were health-related, including those regarding maternal and child health where, along with the Chief District Medical Officer of the district, we would review the implementation of these public health projects. During those years, I got the direct experience of seeing how socioeconomic status affects health outcomes, and after completing my field postings, I opted to work in…