Perseverance has defined Alishia Wright’s journey.
Long before she walked through the halls of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, she had faced and overcome obstacles that might have discouraged others.
Growing up in a community where social inequities were evident, she saw firsthand the struggles of underprivileged families and understood the need for systemic change.
But Wright’s higher education journey was a bumpy one. Wright attended five different universities over the span of 10 years before earning her bachelor’s degree.
Rather than becoming discouraged, Wright channeled her experiences into action. Her early career background in nonprofits gave her insight into the struggles individuals and families face daily, but she wanted to do more. She wanted to address systemic issues through policy reform.
That search led her to the Humphrey School and its Master of Public Policy (MPP) program.
When she started applying to graduate schools, Wright feared her up-and-down undergraduate experience might not make her a desirable candidate for a place such as the Humphrey School.
“I got an email [from the Humphrey School] saying I was accepted, and I immediately started crying because I had been through so much with education that I didn’t think I was going to get in at all,” she says. “I didn’t think that I would be able to return to a more traditional education setting because of my background and everything that I had been through. So when I got into Humphrey, it was me saying to myself, ‘Yes, you are good enough.’”
Applying her skills
From that moment on, Wright was determined to make the most of her time at the School, and she did just that. During her time in the MPP program, Wright worked fulltime, completed her coursework, and welcomed a baby boy. She graduated from the School in December 2024.
Now working as a consultant at a small agency, Wright has seen firsthand how she’s been able to apply the skills she learned in the MPP program to her work. She’s working with government agencies to see how their policies and programs affect people, and how changing these policies could improve people’s lives.
For instance, she’s used the skills from her qualitative methods class to help her conduct interviews and design surveys to send to constituents who might be impacted by changing policies. She’s also used the knowledge she gained from her program evaluation class to help write submissions for requests for proposals, including some that her organizations have won.
“I’ve been able to definitely take those more skills-based classes and apply them directly to my work,” she says.
Along the way, Wright received plenty of support from faculty and staff at the Humphrey School. In particular, her advisors, Professors Angie Fertig and Joe Soss, encouraged her along the way.
“They’ve both always been really, really invested in me even outside of classes,” she says. “They’ve taken time to connect me with alumni who are doing work that I’m interested in. They’ve asked me about my son and my husband. It’s always been such a supportive and approachable environment. Everybody is truly invested in you.”
Leaving a changed person
During her time at the Humphrey School, Wright made a difference outside the classroom as well, through her involvement in the Public Affairs Student Association (PASA), which represents all the Humphrey School’s graduate students.
“That was a really great experience for me,” she says. “To be trusted and to advocate for other students’ needs was important to me. Everybody in my classes knows that if I say I’m going to do it, then I’m going to do it.”
Looking back at her time at the Humphrey School, it’s the people who stand out most to Wright. From learning from her fellow students to meeting her now-boss – a fellow Humphrey School graduate – at a career fair, it’s those personal connections that have made all the difference for Wright. Now, she hopes to pay that forward and advocate for policy changes throughout her communities.
“Humphrey opens your perspectives and makes you a much more open person,” she says. “You can’t come to Humphrey and expect that you’re going to come out the exact same person. And I think that’s the real benefit to Humphrey. If you want to learn and be pushed and be open to becoming someone different and someone better than you were before, then you come to Humphrey.”