My favorite thing about SPA was that I always felt really seen. The faculty or staff, they knew who I was. They knew what I was interested in. They knew the kind of jobs I was looking for. I'm not from DC, so having someone who is in your corner, not only professionally, but personally, just felt like they knew you, and cared about you made all the difference in the world. I would not be where I am today, without the School of Public Affairs and my professional growth. My first internship was working at AARP. I got that internship through my professor. I went from an intern to an analyst. Fast forward, five, six years later, I was a director. And then fast forward three years after that, I became the vice president of a major nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that has a membership base of over 38 million members in this country. I am now in a position where I can hire interns. And I'm extremely proud to say that most of the interns that I've hired to be on my team to work on major projects across the country has been AU students, because you know, what they're made of. Professionally, SPA has been an excellent resource for me. The network that you made in class really became your professional network. We've all you know, helped one another with getting new jobs or, you know, building out our networks, fine tuning skills, all that stuff. I was really fortunate to have several really meaningful internship experience while I was in the program, and got my current job working as a research analyst for Bloomberg Government. And that was a great foot in the door, I got to do a lot of meaningful policy research. Since then I have transitioned into the team lead roles. I think my experience at AU was invaluable in helping me get there-- Getting to learn more about project management, nonprofit management, and having more of a focus on specific policy areas really prepared me to be in this role.
