# @princetonspia on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ2_8P5sCCx
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/20742204-princetonspia-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/729c2b686e.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-02-12T01:48:05.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Princeton SPIA (@princetonspia) — https://gondola.cc/princetonspia

## Caption

#PolicyProfile: “One of my favorite parts about being here at PrincetonSPIA is the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) dinners. Every Thursday, I meet with other MPA students for insightful conversations. It’s refreshing to have a safe space to share mine and other Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students' life experiences with our colleagues, without feeling hostility in the room. That’s a large part of what makes SPIA memorable to me. Truthfully, I didn’t expect to be here. Following my graduation from Howard University (howard1867), I didn’t have a job lined up. I was searching and applying, but I became discouraged as I kept getting ‘thank you for applying’ messages. The job hunt was brutal. I applied to the peacecorps and was fully prepared to enter into service in August 2020, but the pandemic got in the way. After this disappointment, I knew I had to be more strategic in my approach, so I re-evaluated my strategy to get professional experience in #development. I worked locally in different community development organizations to get the poverty-alleviation experience. I also applied for internships, landing one with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (centeronbudget). That experience helped me to learn more about community development and antipoverty mitigation efforts on a small scale, but I wanted to have a bigger impact. So I applied to various graduate schools, and SPIA landed as the best option. At SPIA, I am studying anti-poverty mitigation efforts. I am interested in developments through an economic lens such as tax policy priorities and wealth redistribution. Anything I can do to improve the standard of living for others is a professional and life goal of mine. For any prospective graduate students or those making steps in their career, I challenge you to be open. Talk to new people, facilitate conversations better, build connections, try things you’ve never done before, and learn something new every day.” — Christian Keith MPA ‘23 #PolicyProfile is an Instagram series that features members of our community. Want to be featured? Comment/DM us. #BlackHistoryMonth #DEI #PovertyAlleviation #WealthRedistribution

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- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 129
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## Tags

dei, development, policyprofile, povertyalleviation, wealthredistribution, blackhistorymonth

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