The Citizen

By Irene Shih, MPP’13  To My HKS Family: For this final, graduation issue, I am grateful to be back in the pages of The Citizen again – our newspaper marked many beginnings and ends during my two years here, and I couldn’t be happier to share my farewell with you as I await my diploma […]

By Chris Lien, MC/MPA’13, Correspondent I have come from the tropics, bringing my family with me. For us, the last year has been such an adventure.  Our university flat by the river has become our very comfortable home.  Our son goes to a nearby nursery and loves his school.  We have grown to understand the […]

By Jaya Bhagat, MC-MPA’13 & Mason Fellow, Opinions Editor The letter offering me admission to Harvard in April 2012 brought with it the promise of new beginnings. As I was preparing to travel to the United States for a year as a mid-career in Cambridge, one of my seniors in the civil services in India, […]

By Amy Antonelli, MC/MPA’13, Correspondent “Damn it!!!! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!! This BullSH$% makes me furious. We have one of the absolute most corrupt administrations in the history of this country and 50 million idiots just voted to give Obama another term.” This statement, posted by a conservative acquaintance on Facebook days after […]

The following is a creative reflection written by Mihir Mankad, MC-MPA’13. An Oasis…of intellectual stimulation and reinvention! What is this amazingly resourced and dynamic world that we were thrust in? As a student who came from the other end of the world, from a land of stark contrasts and intense poverty, the “gift” of an […]

By Nathan Finney, MC-MPA’13, Assistant News Editor Politics is infused in everything we did this year at the Kennedy School; from classes on becoming a politician and managing campaigns, to Forum events with foreign dignitaries and workshops on the arts of communication.  Even the school motto, Ask What You Can Do, is focused on the […]

This summer, HKS students are traveling to all corners of the world to work on policymaking, advise nonprofits or conduct research. The ‘Summer Snapshots’ is a portrait of these experiences in which students — in their own words — share their stories, musings and reflections.  Fernando Berdion del Valle is  interning at a startup incubator in Mexico […]

By Chrissie Long, Staff Writer Responding to criticism of a dissertation written by a former PhD student on the IQs of immigrants, Harvard Kennedy School Professor Richard Zeckhauser defended the thesis, saying the “empirical work was careful.” “None of his advisors would have accepted his thesis had he thought that his empirical work was tilted or […]

The following statement was released by Harvard Kennedy School Dean David Ellwood on Friday: “I most certainly understand that this issue, as reported, troubles many people.  In response I offer three thoughts.  First, the views and conclusions of any graduate of this school are theirs alone, and do not represent the views of Harvard or […]

By Amy Antonelli, MC/MPA’13, Correspondent In 2005, Steve Jobs offered the following words of advice to Stanford’s graduating class: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.  Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner […]

By Michele LoBianco, MC-MPA’13, Correspondent I grew up around mental illness.  I was taught not to talk about it and not to mention it to anyone outside of the family.  And, for most of my life, I thought this was normal.  It wasn’t until I came to HKS that I was able to open up […]

By Alexi White, MPP’13, Correspondent “All who work at Harvard, regardless of rank or position, contribute in vital ways to education and scholarship.” Former Harvard President Larry Summers used these words to inaugurate a new university-wide Statement of Values in 2002. With this Statement, the administration hoped to turn the page on the 2001 Living […]