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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

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
Tracie M. Benally
Tracie M. Benally
Class: 2024
Areas of interest: Federal Indian education policy, education policy, K-12 education, Indian Affairs, literacy, curriculum design, community-based partnerships, land-based learning, and culturally relevant pedagogy.
Brandon Tineo
Brandon Tineo
Class: 2024
Areas of interest: college access for underserved communities, leadership within professional spaces, empathetic and culturally aware coaching, educational empowerment
Katie Daugherty
Katie Daugherty
Class: 2024
Areas of interest: K-12 education policy and implementation, teacher pay, teacher retention, curriculum design, literacy development, leadership in public schools.

View profiles of all students

Field project

Program Evaluation as a Learning Tool

Julianna Docking

I collaborated with the Continuous Improvement and Rapid Cycle Learning and Evaluation (CIRCLE) team at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood in order to gain experience using a Theory of Impact...


The Ambitious Teaching Project

Gabriela Fiore Bonicio

The Ambitious Teaching Project final presentation and activity plan for a professional development concept mapping activity. Drawing from Shepard and Chi, Glaser, and Farr, I developed an...


Facing the Challenge of Hate SpeechPolicy Considerations from a Bay Area High School

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...


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.

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