Learning the Many Lenses of Luskin Careers in Global Public Affairs

Jose Negrete (1st year MURP and Dual Degree with Science Po) and Shweta Sundar (1st year MURP)

During the spring 2022 break in our first year of studies in the new double degree in global and comparative urban planning and governance between UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and Sciences Po, Paris, Urban School, a plethora of opportunities in the international civil service level have become available leveraging our current and prior experiences. The alumni and contacts that the GPA program connected us with truly provided invaluable insight into post Luskin life and unique individual pathways to entering the “dream field”. The opportunity of meeting alumni in the field of international development was too good to pass up. 

During our week stay in Washington D.C, the weather was surprisingly pleasant compared to the daily stories of how D.C weather is not the greatest to say the least. Nevertheless, D.C offered us an opportunity that prior opportunities that our undergraduate studies did not provide. In D.C, our group met daily at the Open Gov Hub under Luskin MPP and GPA alumni Izabela Chmielewska who welcomed us with an excellent introduction about organizations at work in promoting positive change in governmental practices through transparency, accountability, and participation. We had the honor of speaking to a diverse array of organizations from the World Bank Group, USAID, U.S State Department, Save The Children, The Millennium Challenge Corporation, and Kersten Tebbe with Collective Mind-who is truly an inspiration. We also spoke to Namati, World Resource Institute, Accountability Lab, exposing us to various interesting projects beyond our discipline.

As an international student, I, Shweta, truly benefited from this increased exposure of opportunities to engage with the context of the Global South. An array of MURP alumni had honest conversations regarding their professional goals, individual perspectives about this sector, how to navigate this position of power with humility and a non-saviorism approach. I personally benefited from the variety in the type of organizations that we interacted with, from constant on-ground engagement to policy-level projects, prompting a personal conversation of which level of engagement did I want to embark upon. 

What I, Jose, valued most about the time in D.C was learning about the individual stories of my fellow peers who attended. We all come from different academic, professional, and contextual backgrounds, creating a melting pot of ideas enabling us to know each other and our respective aspirations. These diverse array of skills and disciplines from urban planning, public policy, and social welfare may be leveraged for work in international development, creating unique skill sets with multiple lenses of analysis to address complex social challenges. We all have our own story to tell and write as we continue in our professional development. Lastly, I want to thank Izabela and Guillaumme at Open Gov Hub and yes….you too Dr. Steve Commins!