A future foreign service officer, CPAS Vice-President, and esteemed Rangel Fellow, Ranissa tells us more about her academic interests in humanitarian action and national security, her professional work experience at home and abroad, and why she chose to pursue her MPA at CIPA.
Hi! I’m Ranissa Adityavarman, and I am a first-year fellow from Manlius, NY. I completed my undergraduate studies in International Relations and Economics at Colgate University in 2016. In the summer after graduation, I worked at the office of Senator Charles Schumer in Washington, D.C., as a Rangel International Affairs Graduate Fellow.
I decided to study public policy because of my interest in advocating for underserved or marginalized populations at home and abroad. Through education extensions and tutoring in high school and experience tutoring refugees in Utica during my time at Colgate, I truly began to fossilize my interest in humanitarian action in marginalized communities. Apart from studying political science and international relations as an undergrad, I have been passionate about work in foreign policy outside of academia. In particular, my experiences studying in South Africa, working with refugees from Somalia, teaching English in Indonesia, and working at CARE International in Switzerland deepened my interest in the policy intersection of humanitarian action, transparency, and national security.
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When I was applying for the Rangel Fellowship, I thought of what all my professional and volunteer experiences had in common. After all, they spanned several years, topics, affected different age groups, and even spanned geographic regions across the globe. Eventually, I realized that my involvement in all these experiences had a common theme: negotiating or working for groups across cultural or economic barriers. This area of reconciliation between the empowered and disempowered is what truly convinced me that I wanted to work in diplomacy.
I was initially drawn to a degree in public administration and value CIPA’s MPA program in its flexibility and profession-driven nature. As a Rangel Fellow, this is precisely what I was seeking for my future role in the Foreign Service and in the international affairs field as a whole. At CIPA, I am pursuing the Government, Politics, and Policy Studies concentration to hone these skills and get the political management experience that I hope will help me in my role in the Foreign Service. I’m especially excited to study applied economics and government-oriented courses. This summer, I look forward to seeing how the negotiation, management, and writing skills I have developed at CIPA assist me in my work in a U.S. embassy abroad.
I’ve loved meeting all the members of this dynamic and diverse community at CIPA. I’m happy that I’ve gotten a sense of the resources and opportunities that Cornell has when you work to pursue them. I’m looking forward to working as an associate editor for the Cornell Policy Review, participating in the Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Team (SMART), traveling to Nandi Hills, Kenya, and working as a research assistant in the Johnson Graduate School of Management.
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