Give Early | Create Opportunity

Andrew was angry. The longtime ruling party in Malaysia was trying to purchase and suppress votes, so he and his peers cofounded pulangmengundi.com (“go home to vote”), an online platform that helped 10,000 Malaysians cast their ballots—and that contributed to the nation’s first-ever regime change. To continue to advance democracy, he applied to HKS—and the financial aid he received made it possible for him to attend. “HKS represents a dream of social mobility not just for Americans but also for international students. The possibility of getting financial aid can either be a catalyst or a huge roadblock,” he says.

Rachel founded a Chicago nonprofit during COVID-19 that distributed meals to exhausted frontline workers while bolstering local restaurants that were struggling, raising more than $60,000 and delivering over 8,000 meals. “No matter how many meals I served or how many restaurants we supported, millions of people still fell into poverty and tens of thousands of businesses closed,” she says. Her desire to create an equitable economy led her to Harvard Kennedy School. “The access that HKS provides to world-class professors and policy practitioners will provide me with the skillset necessary to launch my career in the public sector.”

A native Floridian, Kelsey has long been aware of the immediate effects of climate change. She came to HKS to gain the quantitative skills she would need to address the crisis, especially as it relates to poor governance of natural resources, corruption, and environmental devastation. She says, “I was very fortunate to receive financial aid to attend HKS. The aid was, without a doubt, the single thing that made attending graduate school possible.” After graduation, she hopes to work in the nonprofit or government spaces. “The ability to consider my career path without the burden of student loan debt is one that I am extremely grateful for.”