What It Means to Graduate Debt-Free

When Stefanie Mavronis MPA ’18 graduated with her master’s in public affairs, she knew exactly where she was headed: The Baltimore native had sought out a public policy degree so that she could return to her hometown and contribute to her community. Yet Mavronis also knew that pursuing that path meant potentially taking a lower-paying job to get her foot in the door and do work with citywide impact.

Because she chose to attend the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, that was a path Mavronis could afford. Princeton SPIA’s graduate degrees are fully funded, including a stipend for living expenses and health insurance.

"One reason we invest in our students is so that they can invest in others by returning to careers of public service after Princeton,” said Steven Petric, assistant dean for global outreach, admissions, and alumni engagement at Princeton SPIA.

For Mavronis, that funding was crucial to entering public service.

“Coming from a working-class background and as an undergrad scholarship kid, not having to worry about a debt or having to consider a short stint in the private sector to be able to self-fund a public service career later — it felt not only like an incredible opportunity, but it felt like the only place that would make a future in public service within reach,” she said.

Her first role after the MPA was director of civic engagement for Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen, a role that entailed managing Cohen’s constituent services program and communications work.

“If I had any sort of debt hanging over my head at that time, I don’t know that I would have been able to accept that first role, which ultimately led me on this trajectory to leadership,” Mavronis said.

Mavronis quickly rose in the ranks, and today she is the director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. 

Her role is directly tied to the work she did as a graduate student. In a policy workshop, Mavronis and her classmates developed a public health approach to violence prevention for Cohen and another councilmember, Brandon Scott. Now mayor, Scott asked Mavronis to help develop his comprehensive public safety strategy that approached violence as a public health issue during his campaign. 

He has since put her in charge of a 40-person non-law enforcement agency that is implementing the city’s first-ever comprehensive violence prevention strategy to go beyond policing, prisons, and prosecution. 

Through victim services, gun violence prevention programs, neighborhood stabilization work, and greater opportunities for Baltimore’s youth, her office has helped drive a 60% reduction in homicides between 2020 and 2025 — when it was down to its lowest level in nearly 50 years. 

“I went from doing the research to helping put these words on the page to today being in a position to implement that strategy,” Mavronis said. 

Centering Public Service

The School’s approach to funding doesn’t just enable possibilities for students, it also creates a community of mission-oriented individuals who center public service.

“There was a culture around it, and I think that was almost as important as the money,” said Andi Lipstein Fristedt MPA ’09. “I loved being somewhere where I felt that was the ethos.”

Fristedt, who is executive vice president and chief strategy and policy officer at the Parkinson’s Foundation, has served as deputy director and chief strategy officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She was also the deputy commissioner for policy, legislation, and international affairs at the Food and Drug Administration. 

She noted that the benefits of a fully funded degree extend beyond the initial years after graduation. Two decades later, when she reviews the public service careers her classmates have had, she said she believes the School’s investment in them has paid off.

Eliminating Financial Barriers

Princeton SPIA isn’t the only public policy school that offers funding to graduate students, but its funding goes above and beyond. Students receive a stipend while they are in the program as well as funding for summer internships and professional development, enabling them to focus exclusively on their studies.

Sergio Rodriguez Camarena MPA ’24 said he received funding offers from other policy schools but ultimately chose Princeton because he knew he would be able to get the most out of his time here. He was helping support his family, and those financial obligations limited his ability to take time off for an advanced degree. 

“With Princeton, it was like I get all of this paid for, and now I get to actually use whatever time I would have otherwise spent working as a teaching assistant or research assistant to connect with alumni, current students, and professors. It just changed the entire trajectory,” Rodriguez Camarena said. 

When he and his classmates were hanging out or planning spring break trips, having the same stipend meant that they were all on a similar budget. This reduced barriers and allowed him to take part in informal activities that often result in valuable connections.

“If we wanted to do something, we were money-conscious together,” he said. “Our wealth may have been different, but because we were all living within the same means at Princeton, it provided an opportunity for people to mingle and connect.”

Rodriguez Camarena, who had been working in the nonprofit sector before attending Princeton, landed a job as a research manager on the criminal justice team at Arnold Ventures after he graduated. In this role, he melds his background in criminal justice work with the quantitative, research, and evidence-based policymaking skills he acquired at Princeton SPIA.

“I was able to land what is the perfect job,” he said. Reflecting on his path as a formerly undocumented immigrant, Rodriguez added, “I’ve always lived in that realm of reality versus dream — like, my dream is to be here, but the reality is what sets the bar.”

Top photo from left to right: Stefanie Mavronis MPA ’18; Andi Lipstein Fristedt MPA ’09; Sergio Rodriguez Camarena MPA ’24