The Citizen

by Ejaj Ahmad, MPP1; Rebecca Haessig, MPP2;  
and German Sturzenegger, MPP1
Guest Contributors

Many of us are frustrated at times by the perceived gap between public policy school and public policy reality at KSG. Removed from the working world, we’re inundated with abstract tasks. We sometimes question the utility of our degree. Are these two years worth it? What are we really learning? 

This spring break, we, along with three other KSGers, participated in the “Guadalupe Challenge”, an initiative of the Mexico Program at Harvard’s Center for International Development. It helped us answer those questions. 

Working for the Mexican municipality of Guadalupe to devise policy proposals alongside other graduate students was a welcome reprieve from problem sets and p values. But more importantly, a week of strategizing for a working class city of 600,000 just a few hours south of the US border reminded us why we came to KSG in the first place: because good public policy matters. 

We were charged with developing viable proposals to improve the city’s performance in accountability, business development, digitalization, parks and recreation, and instructed to brief the Mayor and her Secretariat on those proposals meriting her time and attention at the end of the week.

Over the week, we realized how our classroom experience prepared us for Guadalupe: parachuting into an unfamiliar environment, identifying the key issues, and developing pragmatic solutions with limited information. 

The Challenge was also personally rewarding. We forged invaluable ties with our Mexican colleagues – working hard, learning from one another and building something together. We were enriched by their professional perspective, experience and skills, and became great friends. They were our colleagues, our tour guides, and, needless to say, our drinking buddies. 

The Challenge is far from over. As we’ve learned at KSG, building political consensus takes time and careful design. Luckily, KSG prepared us well. We are still working on our projects and will deliver our final reports to the Mayor of Guadalupe by the end of this month.  

The Guadalupe Challenge was instructive, applying classroom lessons in a real world setting. KSG students would certainly benefit by seeking out such initiatives in the future—it’s a lot more useful than complaining about econ homework.   

We hope both the faculty and administration continue to work with municipal governments around the world to create more opportunities like this one.

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