Stumbling into Sustainability

I arrived at SIPA in August 2022 with a lot of zeal for learning and not even the faintest idea of what I hoped to achieve from graduate school professionally. In the 5 years since graduating from college, I had worked cross-sectorally in non-profits, start-ups, and even the federal government in Pakistan. I had imagined I would have clarity about my professional and academic pursuits by the time I began my MPA program, but I felt more lost than ever. I stumbled upon classes in Impact Investing and Environmental Resilience during my first semester in graduate school and began speaking with my talented peers about the projects they had been involved in prior to and at SIPA related to these fields. I found myself naturally gravitating towards issues of energy access in emerging economies and sustainability management globally and decided to switch into the Energy & Environment Concentration in Spring ’23. I spent this past summer working with a solar startup that aims to accelerate the adoption of clean tech in developing countries. But I recognized that I needed more exposure to organizations committed to sustainability norm-setting and a just energy transition. This is what propelled me to apply for enrollment in the Sustainable Investing Consulting Project for Fall ’23. Many of my peers came into the course with a clear preference for the projects they wanted to work on. I was open to all of them and felt each had so much to teach me, and for me to hopefully contribute to. I was assigned to a team that would scope out US-based companies impacted by the new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive promulgated by the EU. Even though I had some exposure to international sustainability reporting standards, it felt daunting to be trusted to present our findings to an organization that has transformed sustainability reporting in North America. What has made this process less daunting has been the incredible team I have the privilege to be a part of. All six of us bring so many unique qualities and experiences to this project. Even though we are working with a real client on a live case, this is still an academic exercise, and that has given us an exciting opportunity to innovate and experiment with our research methodology. We can conduct outreach form the vantage point of graduate students and leverage our position at SIPA to access resources and information we would otherwise not be able to. I am energized by the wonderful people I am getting the opportunity to connect with in class. Through our active engagement with all other teams in the course during the weekly class meetings, I feel like I am a part of all 10 projects vicariously and can learn from the successes and failures of the whole cohort. So, do I finally know what I am going to do after I graduate from SIPA in May? I am still unsure. What I do know is that I want to continue working alongside intelligent, thoughtful people who are committed to making a positive impact in this world. And I feel so fortunate to have connected with so many of them through this consulting experience.