USC Price Blog

Master of Public Administration online graduate Paola Najera has a background in various sectors, including energy, finance, and nonprofit. As a first-generation Guatemalan Latina, she balanced professional responsibilities with academic pursuits. Najera, who graduated in 2024, discusses her motivations, experiences, and future aspirations just before landing her new role in Global Communications at Visa. Q:…

During the pandemic Nicolas Rodriguez was laid off from his sales and marketing job in the private sector, prompting him to reflect on his career path. With a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, he decided to return to his passion for the government and nonprofit sectors. Now, the 2024 USC Price Master of Public Administration…

Katherine Cooley is a senior consultant at Deloitte, focusing on regulatory and compliance issues for government clients. She graduated from the USC Price Master of Public Administration online in 2018 with a concentration in city and county management. Cooley reflects on her decision to pursue the MPA program online, her initial goal of becoming a…

As Tony Domenick and Blake Nawa’a sang at venues across Colorado, they often dreamed of a more collaborative choir.  The professional singers usually worked with choirs run by a sole artistic director, resulting in poor solutions to rehearsal problems, less diverse musical repertoires, or little use of other experts. Domenick and Nawa’a imagined a choir…

Pivoting from a museum career to a role in the nonprofit sector, alumna Kate Kelly is using her Master of Public Administration (MPA) to enact change in foster care. Many people begin college with a dream job in mind, working throughout their undergraduate years to realize their career goals. Not everyone, however, finds satisfaction in…

A day in the life of MPA Online student, Jarred Cornell as he navigates switching from the private sector to politics in his home state of Florida.

Michi Slaughter has worked for the City of Los Angeles for 20 years because of her background in information technology, she was concerned about a lack of a policy regarding data and strategic planning.

MPAOL Graduate 23′ Veronica Frazier who was interested in starting her own NGO discusses how the program provided the skill se needed to move forward in her career.

Priscilla Hung, co-director of Move to End Violence, discusses why after years of working in the nonprofit sector she selected MPAOL.

When COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns rolled out, Aimee Heim saw an opportunity to invest in herself and pursue a graduate degree. She enrolled in the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy’s Master of Public Administration (MPA) program online, which provided flexibility to work on class assignments, continue her role overseeing grants and government relations at…