Student Life

“In a high school nutrition class, I learned that a quarter of Pennsylvanians were food-insecure, which was mind-boggling to me. That was not reflected in what I was seeing day to day. As a result, I was motivated to get more involved in addressing food insecurity in my community. That experience affirmed that public service was something I wanted to do with my life. A lot of times there’s a stigma around hunger and needing support, so kids won’t disclose that they’re struggling to access enough food. My friend and I came up with an idea to connect with a local grocery store to rescue its leftover produce, and we set up cooking classes after school…

“At 19, I received a scholarship to live and study abroad for the first time in Baku, Azerbaijan. The experience reshaped my understanding of cross-cultural exchange and sparked my interest in economic development, especially as I observed stark regional inequalities outside the capital. After graduating from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities during the pandemic, I began my career in public service as a contact tracer for my county. I went on to teach English at a university in Türkiye and later worked in international financial services before transitioning to economic policy. At the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of International…

“As mayor of Jamesburg, NJ, I wake up every day thinking about how to make my hometown stronger. I was born and raised here, a small, blue-collar community without wealthy donors or endless resources—just hardworking people who care deeply about where they live. Public service, to me, isn’t politics. It’s about showing up, listening, and getting things done. I was elected to the Borough Council during my first semester as a transfer student at Princeton. A year later, I became Council President, and in 2024, after our mayor resigned, I stepped in as Acting Mayor while finishing my senior thesis. Today, I’m serving a two-year mayoral term focused on…

“Being from Ghana, my path to public policy has been shaped by working across countries, sectors, and institutions — and seeing firsthand what it takes to turn good ideas into lasting change. After graduating from the London School of Economics, I spent a year and a half at the South Centre in Geneva, exploring how countries in the Global South can learn from one another’s development experiences. From there, I moved to Senegal, where I worked with IDinsight on monitoring, evaluation, and learning strategies for education and health programs. I later returned to Ghana to support the Ministry of Education through Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA),…

"I grew up between places and histories. My parents raised me in the United Kingdom and India. Growing up hearing stories about my grandfather, a political activist who lost his life advocating for the right to speak against injustice, inspires who I am as a person. When I got to university, I had this self-realization that the spaces where I felt most energized were those focused on politics and civic engagement. That path eventually led me to consult with the United Nations Development Program, which launched my career path. Being inside the U.N. showed me its importance and limitations. I became interested in how global institutions can evolve to…

“I grew up in Bogart, Georgia, in a working-class community just a few miles from the University of Georgia. That proximity meant I witnessed starkly different realities side by side. Our county has one of the highest rates of income inequality for its size, and seeing how disparities in access to education, health care, and jobs shaped people’s long-term outcomes was formative. As a first-generation American with family roots in Egypt, I also saw how barriers to basic needs — whether in Georgia or abroad — can undermine opportunity. Those experiences sparked my commitment to addressing inequities and expanding access to the economic foundations…

“My passion for service is rooted in the belief that geography should never determine destiny — who lives, who thrives, or who gets to dream. Everyone deserves equal access to opportunity, health, and the freedom to become who they want to be. Coming from Liberia, I’ve witnessed firsthand the human cost of policy failures — from 14 years of civil war that shattered every fulcrum of society to the Ebola outbreak that exposed deep systemic inequities. I saw mothers bury children because facilities lack oxygen and families face an impossible trade-off between food or medicine. Those moments taught me that policy is not abstract — it is the difference…

“Some of humanity’s greatest welfare improvements have come from policy decisions — securing public funding for smallpox vaccines, advancing agricultural techniques to prevent famine, or banning lead contamination across a host of countries. As a grantmaker on Coefficient Giving’s Global Aid Policy program, I investigated grants to support think tanks, civil society organizations, and government affairs groups working to increase the scale and cost-effectiveness of wealthy governments’ foreign assistance. One component of my work involved bringing policymakers face-to-face with evidence-based programs. I joined delegations of Japanese and South…

“I entered college planning to study the world, but working in my own backyard in Mississippi ultimately changed my path and shifted my focus from diplomacy to the urgent reality of American poverty. I was born and raised in Mississippi, and attended @olemiss, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies and political science. Early on, I imagined a career in public service but didn’t know where to focus my energies. As the pandemic reshaped both global and local priorities, I began to question where my impact would be most felt. Through the Grisham-McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement (grishammcleanum), I became…