The Institute of Politics at 60

In 1966, just three years after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Harvard created the Institute of Politics (IOP) at HKS, then called the Graduate School of Public Administration, as a living memorial to Kennedy’s legacy, bringing students into direct contact with civic life. 

Harvard Kennedy School’s IOP is a space where Harvard students, particularly undergraduates, participate in civic life. They can take part in 18 programs, including those on campus and opportunities to work within the community. For example, through Citizenship Tutoring, students work with citizenship applicants within the Harvard community and in Greater Boston to guide them through the process. CIVICS recruits and trains talented undergraduates to teach civics to elementary school students in Greater Boston. IOP staff say that if students can dream up a program, they will try to make it happen. 

Sixty years since its founding, the IOP remains one of Harvard Kennedy School’s most visible bridges between campus and country—nonpartisan by design, student-centered in practice, and focused on encouraging young people to participate in public life. Its alumni include former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who was the student president of the IOP as a Harvard undergraduate. In a full-circle moment, he has returned to the Kennedy School campus this spring as a visiting fellow. “The IOP has played a vital role inspiring countless students—including me—to believe in the value of public service,” Buttigieg explains. “Empowering young people to participate in politics has never mattered more, and I’m thrilled to be returning to a place where I learned so much. I will do my best to contribute to the IOP’s great tradition of inspiring and preparing new generations of leaders.” And guests, including resident fellows, engage with students. Former governor of Indiana Eric Holcomb, who was a 2025 resident fellow, and taught a study group on leading through divisive times, wrote in the Washington Post, “I found a community that didn’t always agree but could still talk with each other and work together toward the greater good, which in Harvard’s case includes education, discovery and the development of ideas and technologies.”

The John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum: Modeling discourse 

Since its founding in 1978, the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum has been Harvard’s arena for political speech and debate, welcoming politicians, public servants, famous figures, and academics to model constructive disagreement on important public issues and requiring them to take questions from the audience. For Harvard students, the Forum provides an education beyond the classroom, and members of the public can today watch livestreams of its events, expanding the University’s reach. It is a venue intentionally committed to free speech, open inquiry, academic freedom, and creating a space where people can engage with—and disagree with—perspectives from across the ideological spectrum. 

In 2002, Harvard announced the space at the heart of the Kennedy School campus—then called the ARCO Forum—would be renovated and renamed in memory of John F. Kennedy Jr. In the announcement, then Dean Joseph Nye said, “Throughout his adult life Mr. Kennedy maintained very close ties with the School, serving as a member of the Institute of Politics Senior Advisory Committee for 15 years. … Having his name on our Forum wall will serve as a vibrant reminder of John’s many important contributions to our institution.”

Over decades, the stage has welcomed leaders across sectors and continents: presidents, prime ministers, Nobel laureates, and influential figures in business, labor, finance, media, and the arts. In the last decade alone, guests have included Joe Biden, Mike Pence, and Jacinda Ardern on leadership challenges. The 1990s saw Yasser Arafat, the 14th Dalai Lama, and Mikhail Gorbachev, among others, on stage. 

A particularly memorable Forum in recent years brought in (by video) a world leader in the midst of war in his country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to those gathered in the Forum (and across the world via livestream) in September 2022. In conversation with former U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, a distinguished HKS faculty member who would pass away a month later, Zelensky urged the world to react more forcefully to Russia’s invasion. Speaking from Ukraine, with his remarks translated by an interpreter, Zelensky said, “What we strive for, all of us, is peace, and leadership is what makes that happen.” In the audience, students, including Ukrainian scholars, were moved by his words. Ilya Timtchenko MPP 2023, founder of the HKS Ukraine Caucus student organization, reflected that he “heard urgency from the president in that Ukraine really does need the support.” And a Harvard Law School student, Valeriya Tsekhanska, said, “I am extremely honored to be here with all the other Ukrainian students. It is an incredible opportunity to actually speak to our president, to listen to what he has to say.”

Education that crosses the aisle 

In addition to convening notable speakers, the IOP brings public servants into conversation with one another when connection is both necessary and difficult. The Bipartisan Program for Newly Elected Members of Congress is one of the few structured opportunities for incoming representatives from both U.S. political parties to meet away from the Capitol and gain practical insights from Harvard Kennedy School faculty and experienced members about the complexities of governing. The IOP also runs a program for new mayors in collaboration with the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

The program recognizes that governing demands functional relationships. During the program, new members can meet, share what they hope to accomplish, and begin building the cross-aisle connections that make legislating possible.

Learning from practitioners 

Through its fellows and study group offerings, the IOP brings practitioners to campus each term for small-group conversations and other events. Kennedy School students can interact with fellows and learn about real public issues, politics, and civic engagement. For more than 50 years, resident fellows have helped Harvard students gain a real-world understanding of politics and practice. Student liaison teams help resident fellows plan weekly noncredit study groups. (This term, topics for study groups range from campaign finance to journalism to worker power.) 

In addition, the IOP internship programs give Harvard undergraduates opportunities to explore public service firsthand through funded placements with a range of organizations and public officials in the United States and around the world.

The IOP Youth Poll: Measuring views 

Since 2000, the IOP Youth Poll captures young Americans’ opinions and has become a widely cited barometer of attitudes among young adults. Two Harvard College students, Erin Ashwell and Trevor Dryer, initiated the poll under the guidance of longtime Boston pollster John Della Volpe. Della Volpe said, “You can learn statistics and political science in plenty of classrooms around the College. Our job is to develop one question that provides insight into how their generation is experiencing civic life.” Each term, undergraduates in the Harvard Public Opinion Project survey the opinions of 18–29-year-olds in the United States, supervised by Della Volpe, who remains the director of polling. Issues studied range from approval of the presidential administration to trust in institutions to views on democracy, the economy, and public health, for example.

Over the years, the series has grown. The first edition of the IOP Youth Poll was based on a telephone survey of 800 college undergraduates, designed to understand why young people were far more drawn to community service than to formal politics and to test practical “remedies” such as making absentee voting easier and even the (then-novel) idea of internet voting. Two and a half decades later, the 51st edition, in fall 2025, surveyed 2,040 Americans ages 18–29 and focused on a broader picture of youth life: economic insecurity, eroding trust in democratic institutions, social fragmentation, and anxieties such as AI’s impact on jobs and meaning, alongside political preferences and views of leaders. And the 52nd edition, in spring 2026, reflected a cohort of young people deeply distrustful of government and concerned about their economic situation.

The polls have helped journalists, campaigns, and scholars understand shifts in trust, issue priorities, and participation among young voters, while training Harvard students in polling methodology.

The IOP’s enduring legacy 

The IOP’s mission remains to engage students with leaders and ideas and to inspire lives of public service. Today’s media ecosystem moves faster than ever, polarization is wider, and public trust is harder to earn and easier to lose. Yet the IOP’s core methods—bringing people together and inspiring students to participate in civic life—have remained consistent. On any given week, that can look like a Nobel laureate answering questions in the JFK Jr. Forum, a newly elected U.S. representative finding common ground with a colleague from the other party, a resident fellow speaking from experience in a study group with undergraduates, or a student team working to understand what issues young people care about most.

Collage One: Volodymyr Zelensky, 2022, Connie Chung, 1997, George H. W. Bush, 1998, Anthony Fauci, 2022, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 2019, Mikhail Gorbachev, 1992, Pete Buttigieg, 2019, Liz Cheney, 2022, Lee Kuan Yew, 1985, Spike Lee, 2000, Angela Davis, 1991

Collage Two: Wynton Marsalis, 2025, Harvard Votes, 2018, Nancy Pelosi, 2025, Mike Pence, 2025, Parkland student activists, 2018, IOPalooza, 2022, Jacinda Ardern, 2023, Yasser Arafat, 1995, Jeb Bush, 2016, Jane Fonda + Ted Turner, 1992, Election Night, 2024, IOP Youth Poll, 2022, Edward Kennedy, 1978

Collage Three: Condoleezza Rice, 1991, IOP Open House, 2020, Ted Koppel, 1982, John King, 1996, Setti Warren with students, 2024, Maria Teresa Kumar, 2018, student, 1992, Jesse Jackson, 1988, Fareed Zakaria, 2018, Election Watch Party, 2012, Malala Yousafzai, 2018

Collage Four: Antony Blinken, 2026, students at Capitol Hill, 2022, Joe Biden, 2025, Dalai Lama, 1995, Caroline Kennedy + Ed Markey, 2019

Remembering Setti Warren through public service internship

In an announcement after former IOP Director Setti Warren’s unexpected death this fall, Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein and Harvard College Dean David Deming wrote, “It’s often said that the measure of a person’s life is found in their service to others—and by that standard, Setti’s life stands as an example to us all. … Whenever he saw a challenge, he ran toward it—not away from it—and our university and country are better for it.”

This January, the IOP and the city of Newton—where Warren had served as mayor—announced the Setti Warren Memorial Internship to honor Warren. Funded by the IOP, the internship will place a Harvard undergraduate in Newton’s city government.

“Among the joys of his tenure at Harvard, Setti loved nothing more than mentoring students,” wrote IOP interim co-directors Beth Myers and Ned Price. “A native son of Newton, Setti was profoundly proud of his time as mayor, and we couldn’t think of a more fitting tribute than enabling a Harvard undergraduate to help make a difference in the city that Setti so loved.”

The student intern will analyze the financial impact of Newton’s creative sector and identify ways arts and culture can drive economic development—work that reflects Warren’s belief in public service and in government’s ability to be a force for good.

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Photographs by Richard A. Chase, Barry Donahue, Scott Eisen, Natalie Montaner, Mark Morelli, Martha Stewart, Bethany Versoy, and Laura Wulf.