Thank You, Delta Force!

As the fall semester comes to a close here at Harvard Kennedy School, I want to express my admiration and respect for an exceptional group of students:?the Delta Cohort of 2024!?

There’s an important conversation in America today about public sector leaders trained in elite institutions like Harvard being out of touch with constituents...and reality. Candidly, I agree with this criticism.? When your mission is trying to make the world a better place, you’d better start by walking in the shoes of the people you want to help.

The Deltas worked hard this semester to develop elite skills without being elitists. We start our analysis of public policy problems by considering how real people are impacted — hopefully in a way that gets beyond a supply-demand graph.? ?

Grit is part of the organizational culture, and we often speak about the need to experience “positive discomfort” to grow and learn.? In class, the Deltas endured an average of 62 cold calls per class.?They signed up for early morning briefings (aka 0400…and watch out, Americans, because the students most eager for the 4am briefs were from Germany and China!)? They gave countless purposefully stress-inducing on-the-spot briefs on their strategic policy options memos and completed weekly assignments on policy implementation, like budgets and risk assessment models.

The Deltas' passion, creativity, and commitment to making a positive impact in the world are what make the Kennedy School a great place to teach.

Thank you, Deltas, for all of your hard work and a great semester. Your dedication and enthusiasm made a lasting impression on me and signify a bright spot in the future of our global community.

And a very special word of thanks to the amazing teaching team: S. Jessica Bolin Cynthia T. Aman Shaikh Britney Tran Ethan Lee Drisana H.

藤原ゆか Willow Fortunoff Velika Yasay Umran Mustafa Theo Zhang Sungtaek OH Enxian Fu Sohyun Jang Shun Maruyama Shirin Assadian Sebastian Buck Sebastian Fernandez Sam Weiss Sadie Emch Ruhee Wadhwania Rod Moshtagi Ritesh Deokar Olivia (Arnold) Mallory Nicolette Santos Nathalie Bussemaker Nate Powell Maya El Jawhari Luc Hillion Lelina C. Lea Baltussen Ka'Nedria Boldin Josh Allyn José Miguel Santamaría Barvo Jerwin Tiu Jena Kanji Jason Ren Jeun Lee Jasmine A. Jade Lin Glenna Roberts Dimitri H. Elizabeth Spotts Dhanya Nageswaran Daniela Schulman Carlo Giannone Bhuvan Ravindran Alissa Ji Arianna Fano Jennifer Li Mehar Jauhar Priya Millward