By Maleni Palacios MPP 2027
When I started my first semester at Harvard Kennedy School, I had a pretty clear vision for what came next. I wanted to pivot from the private sector into public service, ideally at a federal agency in Washington, D.C., working on domestic policy.
By October, that vision felt increasingly uncertain.
As the federal government downsized and agencies faced hiring freezes and funding cuts, I found myself wondering whether the path I had imagined would even exist by the time summer arrived. Like many of my classmates, I spent my first semester talking with friends, meeting with advisors, reading the news, and trying to make sense of a rapidly changing public sector landscape. What I didn’t expect was that some of the most meaningful opportunities would come from looking beyond Washington, D.C.
Almost immediately after arriving at HKS, I found myself drawn into the state and local government community. Through conversations with classmates, faculty, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and practitioners who generously shared their experiences during office hours, I began to see public service through a different lens. I realized something that now feels obvious: my goal was never simply to work for the federal government. My goal was to improve people’s lives through public policy. Whether that work began in a governor’s office, city hall, or a federal agency mattered far less than I had initially believed. I did know one thing for certain, though: I wanted to be back in the South, my home region, and in a place where I felt I could make a meaningful contribution.
“My goal was to improve people’s lives through public policy. Whether that work began in a governor’s office, city hall, or a federal agency mattered far less than I had initially believed.”
By the end of my first semester, I kept a running list of the state and local government fellowships available through HKS. The Michael S. Dukakis Governors’ Summer Fellowship Program, the Bloomberg Harvard Summer Fellowships, and the Tony Gómez Ibáñez Fellowship quickly rose to the top. January and February became a whirlwind of applications, interviews, networking, and waiting. By spring break, I was fortunate to have several opportunities and ultimately chose the Dukakis Fellowship.
This summer, I am serving in the North Carolina Governor’s Office on the policy team focused on PFAS (“forever chemicals”) and environmental health. My work has centered on helping North Carolina strengthen its response to PFAS by engaging stakeholders across state government, advocacy organizations, and industry. It has challenged me to think about environmental health through the lenses of science, implementation, politics, and federalism, particularly as federal regulations continue to evolve and states navigate remaining regulatory gaps.
But some of my biggest lessons have come outside my day-to-day work.
I’ve had the opportunity to observe state government in action during one of the most interesting political moments in North Carolina. Our policy team even read Anatomy of a Purple State: A North Carolina Politics Primer together as a summer book club, giving me a richer understanding of the state’s unique political dynamics. Watching the General Assembly in session, following budget negotiations, and seeing how government functions amid prolonged fiscal uncertainty has been an education that no classroom could fully replicate.
When people ask how HKS prepared me for this fellowship, I think first about the people, not the classes. My coursework gave me a strong foundation in policy analysis, economics, and public management, but it was the community that prepared me most. Conversations with former mayors, practitioners, classmates, and alumni helped demystify what it means to serve in government. I certainly didn’t arrive knowing everything, but I arrived knowing how to ask better questions, navigate ambiguity, and contribute with confidence.
“When people ask how HKS prepared me for this fellowship, I think first about the people, not the classes. My coursework gave me a strong foundation in policy analysis, economics, and public management, but it was the community that prepared me most.”
If I could offer one piece of advice to incoming students, it would be this: keep an open mind. The job market will change. Administrations will change. Hiring priorities will change. There will almost certainly be moments when your original plan no longer seems possible. A “no” doesn’t always mean “no.” Sometimes it simply means “not now.”
I came to HKS believing that my first chapter in public service would begin in Washington. Instead, it began in Raleigh. And after spending the summer working alongside dedicated public servants tackling complex environmental challenges, I can confidently say that public service doesn’t belong to one city or one level of government. It belongs wherever people are working to make their communities better.
As I head into my second year at HKS, that’s the lesson I’ll carry with me most.
