The Taubman Center supports students on three key fronts:
- Experiential learning opportunities
- Mentoring for and connections to projects and jobs with states, counties, and cities
- Engagement and events with state and local government leaders
The Taubman Center provides experiential learning opportunities for students within state, county, and city government to gain critical hands-on skills, while allowing students to contribute their ideas, passion, and capacity. We bring state and local government leaders from around the country to HKS to speak openly with students about their roles, successes, and challenges.
In addition to the below opportunities, there are fellowship and experiential learning opportunities to engage with key state and local agencies in the Greater Boston area through the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. Learn more about the Rappaport Institute and student opportunities.
The Taubman Center also collaborates with the Office of Career Advancement and many HKS Centers and Initiatives to support students in providing guidance on and connections to state and local governments for projects and career opportunities.
Current Student Opportunities
Economic Development Seminar
A yearlong, monthly, 6-session seminar for 30 select HKS graduate student applicants who are committed to public service and interested in state and local economic development.
Economic Development Post-Graduate Fellowship
A yearlong, competitively paid fellowship for a graduating HKS student to work full-time with a state, county, regional, or city economic development agency.
MLD-412 Greater Boston Advanced Applied Field Lab
Advanced training in public finance, budgeting, and operations. Under faculty supervision, students construct financial models, analyze capital plans, evaluate service-delivery systems, and perform analysis that reflects fiscal and operational realities.
Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE)
The Taubman Center also collaborates with others in the HKS community to support students in providing guidance on and connections to state and local governments clients for policy analysis exercises.
Student Organizations
The Taubman Center offers modest grants to Harvard student organizations for support with development-related projects or events.
SUP-683M State and Local Economic Development Course
Offered each spring, SUP-683M surveys the history and evolution of state and local economic development policies in U.S. urban and rural communities; provides an understanding of the institutions, politics, and players involved; and more.
Taubman Center Urban Prize
The Taubman Center Urban Prize recognizes achievement in urban policy. Submission is open to to Harvard Kennedy School students, with a focus on entries that have been prepared originally as policy analysis exercises (PAEs).
Tony Gómez-Ibáñez Summer Fellowship
A paid 10-week experiential learning opportunity for a returning HKS student (including joint-degrees) to accelerate the transportation, transit, and infrastructure policy priorities of a state, county, or city agency in the summer after their first year.
Transition Term
An experiential learning opportunity that challenges students to put their skills and passion for government to work in supporting newly elected leaders from across the country as they shift from campaigning to governing.
Urban and Rural Leadership Trek
Treks are student-led, Taubman Center supported trips to meet state and local leaders in cities and towns in the country’s interior and in more rural areas.
DPI-325 Urban Politics Field Lab
Students examine public opinion, assess political feasibility, conduct stakeholder interviews, and work with municipal partners to design strategies grounded in evidence and informed by the lived realities of local governance.