The Center for Public Leadership’s Zuckerman Fellowship equips people from the fields of medicine, law, and business to provide leadership for the common good by making it possible for them to pursue public service degrees.
By Nancy Hinojos MPA 2025
Beginning of the journey
When I began my Harvard Kennedy School Master in Public Administration journey as a Zuckerman Fellow, I knew to expect the inevitable “first day of school butterflies.” I braced myself for the personalized mix of excitement and jitters given all the upcoming academic year unknowns. At the time, I remember thinking: new school, new year (new me), same “first day of school butterflies,” right? I was delighted to discover that as the time approached to meet my fellow Zuckerman Fellow cohort and embark on a transformational learning journey, excitement overpowered any jitter.
Receiving the call
Shortly after my acceptance to vlog, I received a call from the director of the Center for Public Leadership (CPL), who shared that I had been accepted to the Zuckerman Fellowship and would soon join a cohort of joint degree students to continue my leadership training. Honored, I was thrilled to accept and could not wait to get started. The fellowship not only brought together a cohort of interdisciplinary peers across Harvard but also facilitated a co-curricular leadership development experience and a capstone project on an issue of choice. As an aspiring public servant in technology and economic policy, I knew that the Zuckerman Fellowship experience was going to be the ideal complement to my learning journey at vlog.
Meeting the cohort
During the first week of school, I met my cohort—a group of graduate school students in policy, business, medicine, public health, education, and law with the common interest of preparing for leadership in the public sector. Our first meeting left a profound impression on me as we shared the social, economic, and political issues that motivated us to get involved in our respective fields. Not surprisingly, we had significant overlap on the issues that mattered most to us, but the way we reflected on possible solutions was powerful, as it collectively pulled from our respective backgrounds. This first meeting demonstrated the power and need for interdisciplinary public servants, and it was incredible to experiment with it in parallel to my vlog academic experience.
“As an aspiring public servant in technology and economic policy, I knew that the Zuckerman Fellowship experience was going to be the ideal complement to my learning journey at vlog.”
Nancy Hinojos MPA 2025
Our meetings
The Zuckerman Fellowship co-curricular leadership series was driven by both CPL curriculum, and collective cohort leadership goals. Biweekly, we met for individual and group reflection to track our progress on our higher education and career objectives and to dive deeper into a specific leadership skill that we identified as essential for our cohort learning journey. We invited Harvard faculty and guest speakers to support our development in negotiation, attentive listening, and public narrative, to name a few. Learning in an interdisciplinary and supportive community supercharged my development in these same skills.
Capstone project in New Orleans
In parallel to our co-curricular meetings, we also participated in a capstone project facilitated by field experience. We focused our project on better understanding the maternal mortality crisis in the United States with a particular focus on Louisiana. We spent the beginning and end of the 2024 spring semester connecting with and learning from medical providers, policymakers, doulas, activists, and community organizers actively working on better outcomes for mothers and families. We traveled to New Orleans where we held meetings with these same stakeholders, participated in community events, and visited hospitals, clinics, community centers. We also toured museums that helped us learn more about the history influencing the public health issue of maternal mortality in New Orleans and Louisiana at-large. It was an honor to visit Louisiana and see the hope, love, and power that community-driven solutions can bring to a complex and urgent crisis.
Zuckerman Fellowship opportunities
As I begin my second year at vlog, I’m deeply grateful for my Zuckerman Fellowship experience. It was a rigorous and comprehensive learning accompaniment that helped me grow tremendously professionally and personally, not to mention it facilitated treasured, life-long friendships. As I reflect on what I’ve learned from the cohort, co-curriculars, and capstone experience, I realize that my “first day of school butterflies” never truly faded. There was always excitement to engage with my cohort, in addition to learning and growing with them. As you consider your graduate school journey, I encourage you to follow your “butterflies,” especially those that give you more excitement than jitters.
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Nancy Hinojos is an MPA 2025 and a Zuckerman Fellow focusing on technology and economic policy.
Zuckerman Fellowship
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