Sara Homma, a San Antonio native with roots in Mexico, came to Brown University through the Brown|RISD Dual Degree Program. Over the five-year program, Homma found that her International and Public Affairs (IAPA) studies began to influence her artwork, and her artistic practice informed her academic work.

2026 Brown University MPA graduate Derek Czapek describes how his Watson experience has impacted his career. Czapek currently works as an associate consultant at Bain & Company.

In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, Chamika Wanigatunga, a 2019 graduate of Brown’s Master of Public Affairs (MPA) program, uses the quantitative and qualitative research skills he developed at Watson to guide critical discussions at the World Economic Forum.

Annika Prinz, a fifth-year graduate of Brown’s Master of Public Affairs program, has successfully translated the lessons she learned during her Watson experience into a thriving career in corporate sustainability.

When Tamara Coger wanted to make a career pivot to work in climate policy, she found the perfect vehicle in Brown University’s Master of Public Affairs (MPA) program. The program provided her with the tools she needed — including a solid grounding in economics and statistics — as well as the flexibility to adapt its curriculum to her specific needs.

The 2026 Watson School student awards, grants and prizes celebrate students pursuing work across the globe and across traditional academic boundaries — through research, internships, language study, public service, honors projects and policy engagement.

The Policy in Action Project — a hands-on work and learning venture — is the capstone to every MPA student’s education at Brown. The MPA Program curates high-profile partnerships with governmental and non-governmental agencies across the country and around the world. The suite of projects also includes several in the Providence and Rhode Island area, allowing MPA students to see the tangible impact of their efforts.

What leads major international powers like the United States, China and Russia to cooperate with one another? What causes periods of constructive engagement to end? These questions are central to research being conducted by Tyler Jost at the Watson School, which has been greatly aided by the work of undergraduate research assistants funded through the Undergraduate Research and Teaching Award (UTRA) program.

Juben Rabbani, a Watson Ph.D. fellow from the Department of Anthropology, created a unique art project as a “visual supplement” to his master’s thesis on the impact of the EV transition on the Salton Sea region of California. Now, he has teamed up with Art at Watson to turn it into a multimedia exhibition, which will be on display until the end of summer 2026.