The deadline to apply for a 2025-2026 PEPG Master’s Fellowship is February 14, 2025 at 12 p.m. ET.
By Rohit Kalaria MPP 2026
The Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) offers two-year, partial-tuition fellowships for students pursuing the Master in Public Policy (MPP) Program at Harvard Kennedy School (or an equivalent master’s program at Harvard University). These fellowships help students with a strong interest in educational entrepreneurship, reform, and policy pursue graduate school at a reduced cost.
Rohit Kataria MPP 2026 is a 2024-2025 PEPG Fellowship recipient. Raised in Wheelersburg, Ohio, a small town in the heart of Appalachia where quality educational resources are scarce, Rohit is focusing his studies on social and urban policy. Rohit’s family prioritized education. In fact, it was the transformative promise of a college education that brought his family to the United States. The PEPG Master’s Fellowship has enabled Rohit, who firmly believes in the power of education to change lives, to work towards a degree that will further his goals of ensuring that all students have equal access to a college education.
Learn more about his fellowship experience below.
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My experience applying for the Program on Education Policy and Governance Fellowship
When I applied, the Program on Education Policy and Governance asked for a 1,000-word letter of intent. While writing the letter of intent, I connected my background and experiences in education-related internships, advocacy, and research to what I want to do in my future career. Most importantly, I wanted to share with the review committee how I believed a PEPG fellowship would support me in my endeavors going forward. There is no interview as part of this fellowship selection process, so once I submitted my letter, I was finished!
My favorite part of the fellowship
My favorite part of the fellowship has been meeting amazing people, hearing about their work in education, and learning about their interests. It has been a great pleasure having conversations with the other fellows (both first- and second-year students) about K-12 special education, college access, education technology, and education policy broadly. These conversations have been supplemented by the PEPG Colloquium Series, where special guests including former superintendents and state supreme court justices have come to share their thoughts on education issues ranging from school choice to performance pay. Learning from such experienced leaders has been an incredible opportunity.
“While writing the letter of intent, I connected my background and experiences in education-related internships, advocacy, and research to what I want to do in my future career.”
Rohit Kataria MPP 2026
What I have learned since being in the fellowship
Education is far more segmented than I initially thought. During college, I worked at government and nonprofit agencies focused on issues across the education sector, from early childhood education to K-12 schooling to college access. I noticed that there were some separations between these organizations, but I chalked that up to the small sample size with which I was working. Over the last few months, I’ve learned that there is a large separation between each segment of the education sector. This has made me better appreciate the incredible work that organizations like the National Education Equity Lab (NEEL) are doing to improve education equity by focusing on the gap between two sectors (in NEEL’s case, K-12 and college).
My advice to applicants considering applying to the fellowship
Apply and get lots of feedback! I went through several rounds of edits on my letter of intent to ensure I was best capturing my motivations for applying to graduate school and this fellowship in particular. I would also recommend spending some time reflecting on the transferrable skills you have that don’t lend themselves as obviously to the world of education. It was helpful for me to contemplate how various activities of mine fit into the larger narrative I wanted to paint for myself.
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