One thing I liked about the Harvard application process was the research. It allowed me not only to look inward as a person, but also to draw my dreams, emotions, and questions about life into written language. 

Then it made me ask where at Harvard I might look for answers, where I might find people who thought as I did, and where I might meet people who thought differently so that we could build something together. While researching Harvard, among the many amazing student opportunities available here,  two student organizations stood out to me: the Phillips Brooks House Association and the Institute of Politics (IOP). At first, I was drawn to them because of my prior exposure to advocacy and public service. Later, I became interested in politics because of a question I had begun asking through my work in children’s rights: How can we use government policy to create child-centered systems and make children’s participation meaningful rather than tokenistic? Children have agency. They understand their environments. Yet adults often make decisions about their lives without them.

I arrived at Harvard with these questions and almost three years of work experience with Save the Children. Still, none of that prepared me for the fear I felt about joining the IOP. After the Student Activities Fair, I returned to my dorm thinking that I was somehow not ready. Perhaps I needed more time to prepare. Perhaps I would not fit in. I worried that IOP opportunities would be too competitive, that what I had done back home would not be relevant in the United States, and that no one would be interested in or resonate with my work in the first place. Fear is interesting because it can make postponement feel like preparation. I told myself that I would apply at the “right time,” when I finally felt ready. Instead of applying to the IOP during my freshman fall, or even joining a program at Phillips Brooks House, I waited. What I did not yet understand was that readiness is sometimes the result of beginning, not the requirement for it

So, if you are standing where I once stood, do not let fear stop you from applying to a program you care about. As I later discovered, there is almost always a way to engage with the things you care about at Harvard. The IOP alone has 17 programs, which means there are 17 different doors into politics and public service. Moreover, much of the work is student-led. You work alongside other students, directors, and co-chairs, so the gap in experience or authority is often much smaller than you might imagine from the outside.
Nevertheless, misconceptions about the IOP are common. One is that it is only for students concentrating in Government, the social sciences, or the humanities. Another is that only students with political connections can enter the most competitive programs, or any program at all. From the outside, the IOP can look like a place built for aspiring politicians and students who can confidently explain the latest headline in American politics.

As an international student from South Sudan, I remember wondering: What exactly am I supposed to do here?
When I arrived at Harvard, I thought my humanitarian background wouldn’t be relevant in the new context. I was still learning how American political institutions worked, and I did not yet know where my experiences fit within conversations about politics and public service. These are the kind of assumption that made me hesitant at first to get involved in politics or public service spaces.
It did not take long for me to realize how wrong my assumptions had been. 

The IOP is not only about elections, political parties, or preparing to run for office. It is a community for people who care about public service in its many forms. Journalism, advocacy, diplomacy, community organizing, education, environmental policy, research, technology, and leadership all have a place there. From all these list, it is very clear that the Institute of politics has alot of programs, with this in mind, I was able to talk to a few student Leaders at the IOP who were more than happy to share their individual experiences and work in these different programs.

Take Citizenship Tutoring, or CitTut, for instance. The program pairs Harvard students with immigrants preparing for the U.S. citizenship process and offers free one-on-one support in civics, English, and interview preparation. Yet, as Co-Director Susie Coakley ’29 explained, the program is about more than gaining new skills; it is also about cultivating relationships.
“Last fall, I began tutoring a woman studying for her exam, and what started as weekly sessions has become something closer to family,” Susie shared. “I’ve learned as much from her about resilience and hope as she has from our lessons together.”

The relationship does not always remain in a classroom. Susie recalled running into one of her tutees at Lowell Dining Hall, where he works with Yard Operations, and sharing a moment over lunch. Because many tutees are Harvard employees or Cambridge residents, she explained, the bond can transcend the tutoring session and become part of everyday community life.
Just as importantly, service connects students to one another. According to Susie, whether students are joining a CitTut social or attending a special speaker event at the IOP, they find themselves surrounded by “some of the best, most generous people Harvard has to offer.” In other words, CitTut shows that politics can begin with civics, but public service often becomes meaningful through relationships.

The Global Affairs Program, or GAP, offers another kind of doorway. As GAP Co-Chair Gaia Alexandra Negrini ’27 explained, “GAP is the first and only program within the IOP that focuses solely on global affairs. It provides a unique space for international students to feel at home in the IOP.” That space did not appear all at once. GAP began in 2024 and grew from a coalition into an official program. Gaia was there through that growth, first participating in the IOP through Fellows and then through GAP. “I’ve had the chance to meet incredible mentors and friends,” she said, “and two years later, I couldn’t be happier to be co-leading GAP.”
Gaia’s advice to incoming students is that “the IOP has so many offerings that you will surely find your place, and if you’re an international freshman looking to get involved, don’t be afraid. GAP’s doors are always open.”
That message mattered to me because I had initially treated my international background as something I needed to explain before I could participate. GAP taught me the opposite. The experiences I brought from South Sudan were not a detour from politics; they were one of  the ways of understanding it.

More importantly, I began to understand that I did not need to know everything about politics before walking through the door. I only needed to care about an issue enough to begin.
During my conversation with Sophia ’29, the Co-Director of the Program on Environmental Policy (PEP) at the Institute of Politics (IOP), she shared a very insightful thought that I am still pondering on. She told me that , “When I came to Harvard and joined the IOP, I had no experience in politics. I was doing work related to robotics and had never been involved in public service.” She explained that being part of the IOP is not about knowing the name of every politician or following every political headline. Instead, it is about caring enough about an issue to pursue it and seek answers to the questions that matter to you. That realization helped me understand why I came to PEP in the first place.”  Sophia also emphasized that what makes spaces like the IOP so valuable is the diversity of perspectives they bring together. “What makes spaces like the IOP better,” she said, “is having people who think differently than us, people who bring new ideas and new knowledge.” Her advice to students interested in the IOP is that: “You do not need any past experience to be part of any program. You just need to be passionate.”
Her thinking challenged my previous assumptions and reminded me of the things I should have said to myself, that meaningful engagement does not begin with expertise, it begins with those burning questions, with that blazing curiosity, and the willingness to take the first steps about the things I am passionate about.

When sophomore Fall came, some weeks, I attended the John F Kennedy Jr. Forum events because I wanted to hear political leaders, advocates, and journalists discuss current events. During others, I joined smaller conversations with IOP Fellows, where asking questions felt far less intimidating than I had imagined. Somewhere along the way, I started  going to the IOP  because an event sounded interesting, sometimes the topics were about other countries but they applied to my region. Then, I started going because the Institute became a place where I found answers to some of my pressing questions through listening to fellows and the students without taking another government course.

The community and the events I attended motivated me to apply to the programs I was interested in. I joined the Women’s Initiative in Leadership to learn from women, mostly in educated societies, and how they navigated and created spaces for women to be educated, to work, and to be part of every institution, mostly at the forefront of decision-making.
I also joined GAP, which felt like a natural fit for someone whose understanding of politics had been shaped far beyond the borders of one country. Through GAP, instead of being participants and learners, we were writing policy briefs and suggesting solutions to policymakers in different regions of the world. Alas, I was both a listener and a contributor of solutions. As it turned out, coming from a small country wasn’t a disadvantage; it was a driving wheel that shaped my story, my passion, and the kind of real-life experiences I brought to discussions in  these spaces.

This is a quote from Layla, the director of WIL:
“I first joined WIL during the fall of my freshman year, and I’ve stayed involved ever since because of the candid conversations and tight-knit community that WIL offers. WIL is a special space because we foster a supportive environment where our members make lifelong friends, feel comfortable asking any questions, and learn more about the paths they want to pursue. WIL is not a program only for future political leaders, but actually for women in public service more generally, so we have members interested in careers in a myriad of fields, including law, medicine, business, philanthropy, and science. I’ve met so many incredible women through WIL and made connections that will help me well beyond Harvard’s gates.”

Will Smialek, the Vice President of the IOP, described the Institute as an “equalizer.” As he put it, “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, what you care about, or what your parents do: there’s a way for you to get involved and make a difference.”
Will also entered the IOP without political connections. During his first year, he was selected to serve as a liaison to a former member of the United States Congress. The role allowed him to attend weekly dinners and learn from someone whose career he might previously have observed only from a distance. “I had no personal political connections; I had nothing to offer—yet they gave me a seat at the table anyway,” he explained. “That kind of trust, opportunity, and community is what made me want to stay.”
His words stayed with me because they captured something I had also begun to feel: belonging at the IOP is not determined by whom you already know. Sometimes, belonging begins when someone gives you an opportunity before you feel completely prepared for it.

For me, the experience that brought this lesson together did not happen while I was sitting in the audience. It happened while I was standing on the stage.
On April 24, I participated in the eighth biannual Our Narratives Showcase, an evening in which Harvard undergraduates shared personal stories about identity, perseverance, advocacy, and their paths toward public service.

I shared the stage with Risha Sinha, who presented “In Defense of the Rom-Com (And Other Politically Radical Ideas)”; Cole Butcher, who delivered “Meth, Poverty, and Power: An Appalachian Story”; Jana Sofia Hupp, who spoke on “What We Owe to the Lives We Don’t Live”; Maurits Acosta, who presented “The Responsibility We Share”; and Dylan Szatko, who delivered “From the Eighth Stair to the State Capitol: Abuse and Advocacy.”

My speech was titled “Expanding Our Circle of Concern.”
In fact, the stories I heard at the IOP made that idea feel less like a theory and more like something people practice. GAP asks students to take seriously the lives of people beyond one country’s borders. CitTut turns an exam-preparation session into a relationship that can feel like family. Our Narratives ask an audience to enter experiences they may never have lived. The programs are different, but their goals are almost similar.  When I stood at  Our Narratives stage, I was not trying to convince the audience that my life had been extraordinary. I wanted to demonstrate how seemingly ordinary experiences, losing stability, watching a friend disappear from a classroom, finding a community, and discovering a voice, can quietly shape a lifetime of public service. The other speakers were doing the same. Although our stories emerged from different families, communities, struggles, and questions, each of us demonstrated that public service often begins before a person receives a title. It begins with the things that make us uncomfortable, with the questions that we grapple with and with the desire to see another person like you also attend Harvard. 

Walking off the stage was very empowering, because only then did I come to the realization that It didn't take a degree for me to advocate for children's rights, it didn't require a Harvard or any other institution of higher learning for me to know that something is wrong. Maybe that is where social service really starts from. But, thankfully, the Institute does not just teach students about leadership. It creates spaces where students can put that leadership to test through practice, by beginning to recognize their own stories as sources of leadership and even listening in itself as an advantage to developing leadership

Before joining the IOP, I thought my unfamiliarity with American politics might make me an outsider. Through WIL, GAP, the Forums, and Our Narratives, I learned that my experiences were not evidence that I did not belong. They were part of the reason I did.
One common misconception is that the IOP is a single club with one type of student. In reality, its programs vary in size, focus, and structure. Some center on research or technology, while others focus on direct service, mentorship, writing, diplomacy, advocacy, or professional development.
As Will explained, “Whatever way someone wants to get involved in politics or public service, there’s a home for them here, not a single mold everyone has to fit.”

 So in the end, this blog is all about saying the most difficult of things in the simplest of sentences which is  dear aspiring members Attend one Forum. Apply to one program. Introduce yourself to one person. Ask one question, even if your voice shakes.
You never know which conversation, application, or opportunity will change how you understand your experiences—or how you see yourself.

When I first entered the IOP, I wondered what someone like me was supposed to do there. Now I understand that the more important question was never whether I already knew how to belong.
It was whether I was willing to walk through the door and discover that a place had been waiting for me.
There is always a place for you at the IOP. That is what I would want every incoming student to know.
You do not need political connections. You do not need to be a Government concentrator. You do not need to understand every political headline, have a perfectly polished résumé, or arrive knowing precisely what kind of leader you want to become. Just know that there is always something to do at the IOP because there is always a place for you at the IOP.

See you all soon!