Summer Internships at HKS: Dukakis Fellowship

One of the summer internship options available to Harvard Kennedy School students is the Michael S. Dukakis Governors’ Summer Fellowship Program. The Dukakis Fellowship allows HKS students to serve in U.S. governors’ offices for 10 weeks between the first and second years of their master’s degree program.
Through the fellowship, HKS students get an up-close look at
the challenges and opportunities at the highest levels of state government.
Fellows apply their leadership and analytic skills to tackle
critical state-level policy issues in health care, education, economic
development, public safety, budgeting, and beyond.
Since it began in 2007, 140 fellows, 38 U.S. states, and 55
different governors have participated in the Dukakis Summer Fellowship Program.
Learn more about past participants’ experiences.
Naintara (Tara) Rajan MPA 2022/Stanford GSB MBA 2021: Governor’s
Office of Connecticut
What did you work on?
This summer, I worked primarily on two initiatives: First,ensuring that adult-use cannabis (legalized in the early days of my summer!) is
rolled out in an equitable and safe manner by supporting the newly created
Social Equity Council, and the Department of Mental Health and Addiction
Services. Second, I worked with the Department of Education on the Free
Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) Challenge, aiming to increase FAFSA
completion rates—a key predictor of post-secondary education attendance—in
Connecticut high schools.
Austin Batson MPP 2022: Governor’s
Office of Utah
What did you work on?
My work this summer touched on so many different facets ofUtah public education. My three main projects involved mapping Utah’s education
data landscape, identifying strategies to increase educator diversity, and
evaluating the strengths of weaknesses of state-level school governance. In
addition to those projects, I worked with a cross-governmental team on
demystifying Utah’s school funding formulas and potential strategies for
property tax equalization. As a member of the governor’s team, I often served
as a coordinator between agencies with statutory authority.
In pursuit of these goals, I attended statewide
superintendent conferences, visited Utah institutes of higher education, hosted
small stakeholder meetings with the governor and lieutenant governor, planned
how to use federal COVID-19 relief funding, worked with state legislators and
fiscal analysts, and so much more.
Amanda Jaffe MPP 2022: Governor’s Office of Missouri
What did you work on?
I worked on the creation of the state’s new Office ofChildhood. Previously, programs for children in Missouri were operated under
three different agencies but will now be overseen by a single department. Enhancing
early childhood education is a priority of the governor, and this
reorganization will help streamline services and improve outcomes.