Skip to content Skip to navigation

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

Julianna Docking
Julianna Docking
Class: 2024
Areas of interest: early literacy, K-12 policy and implementation, early childhood education, science of reading, organizational change
Jeevaraj Suppiah
Jeevaraj Suppiah
Class: 2024
Areas of interest: leadership, public policy, community partnership, citizen engagement, education equity
Antonio Hernandez
Antonio Hernandez
Class: 2024
Areas of interest: Education Policy, Healthcare Policy, Community Partnerships, Medical Education, Youth Civic Engagement, School Board Governance, Educational Equity, Transformative Leadership, Organizational and Systemic Change, Joy in Education
Joaquin-Emiliano Chavez
Joaquin-Emiliano Chavez
Class: 2024
Areas of interest: higher education access and completion, support systems, student-centered service approaches, mentorship, community engagement, systems/organizational thinking and change, college student development, educational administration, interdisciplinary thinking, cultural-historical analysis, fostering belonging for students, understanding sociological dynamics between identity and power in education, uplifting marginalized communities

View profiles of all students

Field project

Research Support for "Illuminating the Textures of Disability-Race Intersections"

Thu Cung

As part of a research assistantship, these works hold three different elements from which to better understand the issue of disproportionality in special education: history, theory, policy. The...


What’s in a Coaching Call? Analysis of Teacher-Leadership Program Coaching Calls at Stanford’s Center to Support Excellence in Teaching (CSET)

Chris Lacopo

Analysis of over 400 minutes of virtual coaching calls between coaches at Stanford’s Center to Support Excellence in Teaching and emerging teacher-leaders yielded insight into the essence of...


Coaching Co-Teachers: Learnings from a Networked Improvement Community to Support Students With Disabilities

Sam Eiseman

For my POLS project, I partnered with Marshall Street's Continuous Improvement team to codify learnings from their Networked Improvement Community for Students With Disabilities. This brief...


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. 

Visit EdCareers

What you need to know

Admission requirements

To learn more about requirements for admission, please visit the Application Requirements page.

Financing your education

To learn more about the cost of the program and options for financial support, please visit Financing Your Master’s Degree on the admissions website.

Contact admissions

For admissions webinars and to connect with the admission office, see our  Connect and Visit page.

Back to the Top