As Eid al-Adha celebrations approach, for those of you who observe, please enjoy the time with your family and loved ones. All the very best, and Eid Mubarak!

Here at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, we like to celebrate. We celebrate things large and small, from finishing the qualifying exams at the end of the year to raising money via the student service auction for local organizations serving our greater community. Some students celebrate their respective faiths and inject these passions and beliefs into the lifeblood of our school. Indeed, each year students learn about - and from - the beliefs and religions of classmates that may be different from their own. And these differences are part of what makes our community great.

At our core, we are a policy school. We debate (and celebrate!) complex issues to offer prescriptions to a wide-range of policy challenges that need to be tackled. One way we do this is through our required (for MPA students) Policy Workshops, where in any given year students will tackle peace and conflict, poverty, governance and healthcare. The topics of these small seminars are student-driven and will vary greatly from year-to-year based on student interest.

If you have an issue that you want to tackle with a group of your peers with guidance from our faculty and visiting practitioners for a real-world client, then we hope you will apply. And in so doing, celebrate who you are and share your convictions. We look forward to learning about you through our holistic application review process.

And for those of you for whom we are lucky to enroll: explore. Take risks. Trust our process, but pushback when needed. Draw conclusions with confidence, and with compassion. Celebrate all that makes the School great!