Our Community

In Conversation.
Explore
group of students
Our Students
group of students
Our Alumni
"I've found that being willing to try new things, even if they involve risk, has made a big difference in my work."
Angel Padilla, MPA '13
Timothy Sell
Community Profile October 30, 2020
Timothy Sell MPA ’22
“My most meaningful life experience is graduating college. I am a #firstgen college student. Growing up, my family struggled to make ends meet, so college never was a foregone conclusion due to high college tuition. However, from a young age, I learned education was the way forward to a stable life, so I did everything I could to excel in school. In high school, I sought out mentors who advised me on college, encouraged me to apply, and helped pave the way for me. My mentors taught me the value of having people on your team cheering you on and lifting you up. My #firstgen identity sticks with me now more than ever at SPIA as I now navigate life as a …
Terri Sewell
Community Profile October 28, 2020
Terri Sewell ’86
Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) '86 (Photo courtesy of Sewell) While a student at Princeton University, Terri Sewell ’86 interned for Richard Shelby, the member of Congress representing Alabama’s 7th Congressional District. Twenty-six years later, she is now the U.S. Representative for that same district, currently in her fifth term. Sewell is a native of Selma, Alabama, the crown jewel of Alabama’s Black Belt. The same issues of systemic poverty and staggering, widespread unemployment that plagued the region when Sewell interned for then-Democratic Congressman Shelby still exist today. Despite these economic challenges, Sewell is inspired by the…
Rolando Cuevas MPA ’22
Community Profile October 19, 2020
Rolando Cuevas MPA ’22
“As Mexican-American, people often assume the hyphen translates to fully belonging to both backgrounds, but in reality you don’t fully belong to either. It’s a common misconception I learned from an early age through spending half my childhood in the Bay Area and the other in Guadalajara. Growing up abroad helped me understand my hybrid identify and objectively observe social and economic shortcomings in the U.S. It made me curious about the forces that shape our world. As part of an immigrant family, I witnessed the forces that disconnected government from my community. I questioned why those who needed government the most had to work the hardest to…
Remy Reya ’21
Community Profile October 13, 2020
Remy Reya ’21
“By the time I was in high school in San Diego, I had seen a different side of California than the blissful, beachy getaway state portrayed in the media. I’d walked along the sidewalks where tens of thousands of people sleep every night. I found myself occasionally slipping into the apathy so many people practice to avoid the guilt of living in such a blatantly unequal society. I also noticed how few meaningful interactions were taking place between housed and unhoused people (beyond the occasional dollar dropped at someone’s feet). I wanted to break down that boundary to better understand the problem, so I started talking to the people I saw sitting…
Mellody Hobson ’91
Community Profile October 12, 2020
Mellody Hobson ’91
Shortly after graduating from Princeton University, Mellody Hobson ’91 joined Ariel Investments as an intern. Today, she serves as the company’s co-CEO and president. Based in Chicago, Ariel is the first minority-owned investment management firm in the country and specializes in small and mid-capitalized stocks. Mellody Hobson '91 (Photo courtesy of Hobson) Hobson currently serves as vice chair of the Starbucks Board of Directors and is a director of JPMorgan Chase. & Co. She was previously the chairwoman of DreamWorks Animation and, in 2017, became the first Black woman to head the Economic Club of Chicago. Last week, the University…
Henry Barrett '22
Community Profile October 07, 2020
Henry Barrett ’22
“The summer after my junior year in high school, I interned for Sen. John McCain. I thought I would probably spend the summer taking phone calls, working the front desk, and opening constituent letters. But one week into the internship, Sen. Maj. Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham brought our whole office into one of the Senate chambers to announce that Sen. McCain had been diagnosed with glioblastoma; it would be breaking news in an hour. The rest of my time in the office was a blur. One day, I’m taking phone calls, and the next, Ivanka Trump is delivering flowers to the office. On his return to the Senate, I witnessed two really historic…
Imane Mabrouk ’21
Community Profile September 29, 2020
Imane Mabrouk ’21
“When I got to @princeton, the first thing I did was buy a world map from the Princeton University Store. My interest in global issues began very early, and I’ve always had a map in my room, ever since my parents got me one when I was five. I was born in Morocco and moved to America at a young age, so I have never felt totally Moroccan nor totally American. Growing up, I felt disparaged by the lack of representation of Moroccan Americans, but I refused to let that bring me down. Instead, I decided to engage further with my heritage because of my personal connection and because the North African region is too often overlooked in American society and…
Juan Pablo Alvarez Enriquez MPA ’22
Community Profile September 24, 2020
Juan Pablo Alvarez Enriquez MPA ’22
“During a bone-marrow transplant, they extract your blood, separate your cells, and return the blood to your body. I know this because I was my brother’s donor. He was at the end of his road with leukemia, but he was too ill for a transplant. A prominent oncologist in #Mexico told us there was a drug in the U.S. that could help. My family isn’t wealthy, but we did everything we could to get the drug. We got it, and he improved enough for the transplant. But the odds were still against us. To be a donor, you have to be a 100% match. Of my four siblings, each of us was only 50%. A doctor told us it could still maybe work, so I decided to be his match…
Christina Henderson MPA ’12
Community Profile September 18, 2020
Christina Henderson MPA ’12
Christina Henderson MPA ’12 is a graduate alumnus of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. She was born in New York City and moved around the country with her military family. As an undergraduate student, she attended Furman University where she studied political science. She then came to Princeton develop her domestic policy skillset. Henderson is a legislative assistant for Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and former staffer for outgoing At-Large D.C. Councilmember David Grosso. She’s currently running for Grosso’s seat on the Council of the District of Columbia and has been endorsed by The Washington Post and by DC Women in…
Riley Owens '22
Community Profile September 16, 2020
Riley Owens '22
“I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many of us volunteer two years of our lives to go anywhere in the world, serving communities and sharing our beliefs with people who are interested in hearing them. After my freshman year at @princeton and a White House Internship, I chose to serve and was asked to go to Denmark, which is actually where many of my ancestors came from. For two years I spent each day talking to people about their beliefs, their hopes, and what makes them happy. I got the chance to meet people from scores of different countries, including some of my distant Danish relatives. I even visited the home of my…
Angel Padilla MPA ’13
Community Profile September 16, 2020
Angel Padilla MPA ’13
Photo credit: Angel Padilla MPA ’13. (Photo courtesy of Indivisible) Angel Padilla MPA ’13 is the policy director for Indivisible, a grassroots movement with a mission to elect progressive leaders and rebuild our democracy. He previously served as health policy analyst at the National Immigration Law Center, and legislative assistant for Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL), advising on issues related to health care and the Affordable Care Act. Below he shares his thoughts on today’s pressing policy issues, how to be an effective decisionmaker, and how his time at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) continues to influence his…
Dean Cecilia Rouse
Community Profile September 04, 2020
Cecilia Rouse
“It’s no surprise that I and my siblings all gravitated toward academia. My parents were both deeply committed to education and lived frugally so we could go to college without acquiring debt. In the early ’80s, I was a @harvard undergraduate at a time when America was in a recession. As unemployment spiked, I saw the damaging effects of the economic downturn, and my heart went out to those who had lost their jobs. I realized then that economics could be a useful framework to think about and break down important social issues. After getting a bachelor’s degree in economics, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. In my family, it wasn’t a question of…
Miguel Centeno
Community Profile August 17, 2020
Miguel Centeno
“I came from what could euphemistically be called ‘humble circumstances,’ but my life was completely changed, and made, by financial aid. In high school, I was awarded a scholarship to @yale, from which I went on to receive a B.A., an M.B.A, and a Ph.D. That scholarship opened the door for so many possibilities and gave me access to resources I would never otherwise have gotten. My experience showed me that universities can be rare spots in American society with very solid institutional practices to ensure that opportunities for social mobility are being widely distributed, especially among traditionally underrepresented students. Now, as vice dean of…
Keely Swan
Community Profile July 09, 2019
Keely Swan