Every student’s path to Harvard Kennedy School is unique. What our alumni go on to do after graduating is equally varied. 

We asked several of our alumni to tell us about their experiences before, during, and after HKS and how their time at Harvard shaped their careers and lives.

Gaia van der Esch MPA 2020 came to HKS to rethink her career and explore global crises through a policy lens. Since graduating, she has published several books and leads an organization that aims to build a world with zero exclusion, zero carbon, zero poverty. 

Here’s what she shared. 

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Gaia van der Esch at speaker series
“My two years at HKS were important for me to rethink and re-strategize my career path.”
Gaia van der Esch MPA 2020
  • Gaia currently serves as managing director of 3ZERO, an international foundation working in over 40 countries to build a zero exclusion, zero carbon, and zero poverty world. She and her team provide humanitarian and development programs to over 18 million crisis-affected people across the world. 

    In addition to her job, she continues to cultivate her passion for writing and public speaking. She recently published a book on leadership, “Leading Our Way: How Women Are Re-Defining Leadership.”

    Woman holding a book that says "Leading our Way" on the cover
  • Because of her unique internship experience focusing on Italian society, politics, and its identity as a nation, her work was featured in major Italian newspapers and ultimately sparked the idea for her first book. She wrote “Volti d'Italia” during her final semester at HKS, and it was published in Italy in 2021. 

  • Graduates from HKS
  • Explores Italian identity during summer internship

    Gaia designed her dream internship for the summer between her two years in the MPA Program. She borrowed her grandmother’s car to travel throughout Italy, her home country, and spoke with Italians about their identity, fears and hopes for their country, and polarization around the world. HKS summer internship funding helped to support her experience. 

  • Begins MPA Program

    Among Gaia’s favorite courses was MLD-377: Organizing: People, Power, Change with Professor Marshall Ganz, which allowed her to question and re-define concepts she had of leadership and power. At HKS, Gaia engaged with fellow Europeans and discovered they had much more in common than they thought. This led Gaia to become president of the European Club and co-chair of the European Conference at Harvard

    She was also involved with the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) Oval Office program.

    “It was eye-opening to see how much gender affects our career development, how we are perceived differently by others because of our gender, and how many more obstacles we must navigate as women. It also helped build a sense of community with other women, which has remained ever since.” 

  • “Before HKS, I had been working nonstop since the beginning of my career with little time to reflect on where I wanted my career to go. HKS felt like the right way for me to step back; grow, discover, and develop new skills and passions; and reflect on my career and priorities.” 

    Gaia felt that the work she did as a humanitarian worker was essential but that it was not addressing root causes behind conflicts, natural disasters, and other types of crises. She felt compelled to explore these global crises through a policy lens, and HKS was the place to be to do that. As a European who had lived and worked in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, she also felt HKS presented an opportunity to experience life in the United States and gain another perspective.

  • Moves to Switzerland and begins role as the global deputy director of a leading think-and-do tank within the humanitarian sector

    In this role, Gaia oversaw global and country teams collecting and analyzing data in over 25 countries to inform the policies and decision-making of governments and UN agencies. 

  • Provides humanitarian support to Syrians

    After graduating from Sciences Po, Gaia lived in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey, working with an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) to provide support to millions of Syrians affected by the country’s civil war. She helped to manage refugee camps; provide water, food, and shelter to those in need; and create educational opportunities for children.

  • Graduates from Sciences Po with a master's degree in international relations
  • Graduates from Sapienza Università di Roma with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy
“Before HKS, I fully identified myself with the positions and roles I had. Now, I have a broader understanding of my identity and view myself as all-encompassing.”
Gaia van der Esch MPA 2020
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