Students & Alumni
POLS students are ambitious and action-oriented. They come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, including teaching, school systems leadership, business, education technology, and government. What they share is a desire to develop the skills and knowledge they need to be effective leaders.
POLS cohorts bring together small, diverse groups of students to widen each other’s view of leadership in various domains of education. Peer learning and support form a key component of the program, modeling the connectivity and collaboration crucial to education leadership. Moreover, POLS students graduate with a network of connections that extends beyond the program year.
Our students
Field project
Promising practices for equitable dual enrollment: Five strategies for coaches, counselors, and mentors seeking to expand access and increase success
By Christian Fincher
Completed in collaboration with the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities, my POLS project considers the efforts of high school networks, community colleges, and nonprofit partners to build stronger webs of support for dual enrollment (DE) students in the Los Angeles region. In ...
Facing the Challenge of Hate SpeechPolicy Considerations from a Bay Area High School
By Antonio Hernandez and Jared Bynum
We built upon the work of a Bay Area High School to address hate speech on their campus. We supported their efforts by analyzing the implementation of the policy. Through interviews and observations, we identified possible elements for disrupting hate speech and provided a framework for ...
Lessons in Leadership: The Importance of Fostering Compassionate Intergroup Dialogue Skills in Organizational Leaders & Community Spaces
By Theodore Poling
Stanford University's Office for Inclusion, Belonging and Intergroup Communication (IBIC) named an interest in increasing the office's ability to train, navigate, and support conflict resolution and disagreement-related dialogues on campus. I participated, across the 2023-2024 academic year, in a ...
Life after POLS
POLS graduates are well prepared to lead in a wide range of roles and contexts. Alumni work in school and district settings, higher education, education philanthropies, corporate and educational recruiting, and government. Below are a few examples of positions held by POLS alumni.
Higher education
Assistant Dean of Students, Oberlin College
Native American Liaison, Stanford Undergraduate Admissions Office
Instructor, Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
K–12 leadership
Assistant Principal, Noble Network of Charter Schools
Literacy Coordinator, Harlem Children’s Zone
Academic Program Manager, Summit Public Schools
School networks, districts, government
Data Analyst, Boston Public Schools
Assistant Budget and Policy Analyst, State of Oregon
Legislative Assistant, United States Senate
Educational intermediaries and ed tech
Instructional Design Specialist, Coursera
Program Manager, Reading Partners
Education Analyst, Emerson Collective
The Graduate School of Education’s EdCareers office provides career education and counseling, job listings, career fairs and other resources to GSE students and alumni.
