Photo Credit: Marta Hanson Four years ago, I met my hero. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg visited Stanford to give the Rathbun Lecture on a Meaningful Life, and as associate director of the Stanford Women’s Community Center, I organized an intimate conversation for students to meet her. When Justice Ginsburg arrived, I shook […]

Thirty years ago, a group of students at Harvard and Berkeley came together to create the Asian American Policy Review. At the time, the editors wrote that “by improving understanding and fostering debate, we hope that the Review will help Asian Americans to continue to ‘break silences’ and find a voice in American society and […]

Hello everyone!  It’s good to see both new and familiar faces at HKS, even if our community is now virtual. This past year has been a tumultuous one, with powerful reckonings on systemic injustice, a deep economic depression and a global pandemic; we recognize that it’s easy to find ourselves anxious and stressed. At The […]

Original Cartoon by Laurent Boinot. Laurent is a life-long learner, an innovation consultant, an award-winning EdTech entrepreneur and a fledgling cartoonist. He is a recent graduate from the Mid-Career MPA program at HKS. His purpose is “Expanding Curiosity!” See more of his cartoons here. Instagram @me_me_cartoon   Last week, the Harvard Kennedy School announced that it will add a required course on racism […]

Photo credit: Lamar Metcalf This article is re-posted with permission. It was originally published on Medium here.  Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd. We know what their last sounds were. Desperate for air, gasping, “I can’t breathe.” Knowing that the end was near, a desperate cry, “Momma.” I too found myself struggling to breathe. What if […]

Photo Credit: Justin Kiner A Commitment to Public Service is Consistent, not Convenient I’m scared and appalled by the recent surge in social gatherings that are completely ignoring public health guidelines. But let me be perfectly clear, I’m not talking about the recent protests that have erupted in response to the murder of African-Americans by […]

I have always been appalled by the mistreatment of Black people in America and around the world, but the racist and cruel events on this past Memorial Day have made me sick to my stomach. That pain was intensified by the empty-worded emails from Harvard Kennedy School leaders that followed. This is because expressing empathy […]

My MPP cohort-mate, Nicholas Hanson, wrote a piece last week outlining the lack of “diversity of thought” and political discourse at Harvard Kennedy School. I want to use this piece to provide a teachable moment for my classmates, particularly my White classmates, at the Harvard Kennedy School.  My peer argues that HKS is isolated from […]

At a typical graduation, you often hear advice preceded by a small, innocuous phrase, “As you leave this place and go back out into the world…” But for the graduating class of 2020, we will hear strange new epithets like, “As you remain isolated from the rest of the world…”  It feels strange to say […]

Drew Madson is an award winning illustrator, educator, and entrepreneur. He studies Technology, Innovation and Education at Harvard Graduate School Education when he’s not in class at HKS. See more of his illustrations here. Instagram @drew1drew2drewyou

Image Credit: DonkeyHotey   The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) challenges students to “ask what you can do” in honor of the late president for whom the institution is named. While HKS is as diverse as any in America in terms of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and life experience, one aspect is sorely missing: diversity […]

Laurent Boinot is a life-long learner, an innovation consultant, an award-winning EdTech entrepreneur and a fledgling cartoonist. He is a Mid-Career MPA at HKS. His purpose is “Expanding Curiosity!” See more of his cartoons here. Instagram @me_me_cartoon