Princeton University’s 278th Commencement will mark a special anniversary for the graduates of Princeton SPIA’s Master in Public Affairs (MPA) program. The 2023-2024 cohort of the two-year program will cross the stage as members of the 75th anniversary graduating class, harkening back to the program’s origins in 1948.

For three-quarters of a century, MPA alumni have gone on to meaningful careers in federal, state, and local governments — here in the United States and around the world — NGOs and nonprofits, the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and countless organizations large and small that change the world for the better on a daily basis.

In celebration of the hallmark anniversary, MPA alumni from nearly every decade reminisce about what the program has meant to them professionally.

How did the MPA program shape your career?

[Princeton] provided me with an opportunity to develop the analytical, quantitative, and writing skills needed to compete successfully in a very competitive environment. Princeton helped me to get my first job in international relations, and without that contact and without the mid-career fellows, I probably never would have gotten an opportunity to work in international relations. I can say from the beginning of my professional career, all the way to the end, Princeton has played an important role in my development and my success as a person in the Foreign Service.

— Julius Coles MPA ’66 Retired Mission Director and Career Minister, United States Agency for International Development
 

My career would have been impossible without the program and without the School. That isn't an exaggeration. I'd never studied social sciences before. While I had a passionate, intellectual interest, and I had some job experience by then — three years working as a lobbyist around issues of trade and development — I had no credentials and no expertise. I was just unbelievably lucky to fluke my way into the program. I spent the middle year working for an international NGO in Kenya, so the fact that I'm now head of the U.N.'s programs and operations in Kenya is literally unthinkable if it hadn't been for the program.

— Stephen Jackson MPA ’94, PhD ’03 United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya

The greatest thing about the program was how it connected academic research to the real world and real policies with a focus on doing good and making a difference. I joined the program as part of a training program of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, and it has helped me navigate my career as a diplomat with a broader, deeper, and more action-oriented mindset.

— Masayuki Kameda MPA ’12 Principal Deputy Director of the Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
 

The program significantly broadened the impact I can have in my field. It enabled me to transition from working in local government to a multilateral organization, where I now support multiple governments in implementing the same types of projects that I was responsible for at the city level. Additionally, after years of full-time work, the program gave me the chance to ‘zoom out’ to be in a learning position again and have time to reflect on how I wanted to move forward in my career.

— Martina Bergues MPA ’23 Digital Government Consultant, Inter-American Development Bank