Join us in congratulating our first cohort of UBC Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs alumni! The MPPGA Alumni Spotlight is a regular feature aimed to celebrate select alumni who continue to inspire us and embody important voices in policymaking. Find a spotlight on new graduate Raphaël Roman below:
 |
“As a fresh graduate of the MPPGA program, my first thoughts are going to the dedicated and truly amazing faculty members and staff that brought this 20-month program to life. Without their constant support, I doubt my experience would have been the same. In company of wonderful and inspiring peers with whom I have shared a similar passion for sound public policies and change-making, we have devised an intellectually stimulating and friendly environment, allowing our inner selves to embark upon innovative and exciting endeavours, experimenting with profound and core ideas that inspired us to apply to such a program in the first place.
In retrospect, I think the MPPGA program provided me with the opportunity to reinforce my confidence and personal engagement in the causes and issues I believe are some of the greatest challenges our current generation is currently facing (climate change, overfishing, economic inequality…). I learned not to give up on the dreams that I was pondering about during my last two years in the program. Indeed, as Oscar Wilde once said: “Progress is the realisation of utopias”, and you don’t need to go back too far in time to witness historical developments that were initially seen as pure utopias.
The broad and diverse array of topics that I have had the chance to explore and delve into nurtured my inquisitiveness and helped me to better comprehend some of the most complex geopolitical, economic, cultural, environmental and social challenges of our time.
Last but not least, the MPPGA program compelled me to move beyond my comfort zone, providing me with novel perspectives that I deemed necessary to go through in order to grow and prepare for the real world.
Besides reinforcing my confidence and commitment to induce real social change across the world, the MPPGA program has provided me with the skillset to do so, combining cutting-edge tools (both qualitative and quantitative) with strategic design expertise. I am now better prepared than ever to tackle the intricate challenges that will face the future generations to come, especially if prompt and concerted global actions are not taken.
I do not know yet what the next few years will look like, but I am already thrilled to be part of a global youth movement that aims to alter the current status quo to the advantage of the next generations. As a sustainability leader and an environment steward, I will keep “fighting the good fight”, as one of my former classmates (Brady Fox) rightly said to me at the end of the program. I sincerely hope to keep working in an intellectually stimulating environment as I have had the opportunity to do so during this program, and I have no doubts that my future career will entail applying and refining the soft and hard skills the MPPGA has initially equipped me with, in order to leave a permanent mark on the crust of the earth.”
~ Raphaël Roman
 |
 |
 |
Visit our MPPGA Alumni page for more details.
