Hometown:
San Diego, California
Undergraduate Institution:
University of California Los Angeles
Major:
Political Science and Government
Watson Master of Public Affairs student Aaron Ayala cited "Tikkun olam," the concept in Judaism that we are called upon to repair a broken world, as central to his identity and his rationale for pursuing a degree at Brown. Ayala said he was drawn to the program because it offered him practical ways to use the skills he learned as a first-generation undergraduate student, including coding, surveying and conducting policy research that will aid him in his quest to improve the world.
"This MPA feels like a practical qualifying degree, and one that is aligned with my values, including issues of civil rights and those affecting immigrant communities," said Ayala, who is on the leadership and management MPA track. "This MPA program offers me a pragmatic way to move forward to access opportunities to work with communities I care deeply about and use those skills. I'm very committed to 'tikkun olam,'" he said.
Recognizing how career-focused the Watson MPA program is, Ayala said, "It feels very grounded and focused on making an impact in your chosen field. I appreciate the focus on where and how this course of study will put me professionally."
In his work as an investigations analyst with the Rhode Island Commission on Human Rights, Ayala engaged with and learned from attorneys working on discrimination lawsuits; in one instance, he was able to observe a commission hearing addressing an accommodations discrimination lawsuit.
For his Policy in Action MPA project, Ayala served as a Policy in Action Project Analyst on a refugee resettlement project with the Rhode Island Department of Human Services. After working on acute issues facing immigrants at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California, Ayala welcomes this opportunity to work on high-level, long-term immigration issues. "Working on policy recommendations relating to immigration for the Rhode Island Department of Human Services is rewarding," said Ayala, "and I'm excited to shift from focusing on immediate problems to the long view."
Last fall's Stakeholder Engagement course and this semester's Leading for Impact course, both taught by Annenberg Institute's Managing Director and Adjunct Lecturer in International and Public Affairs Katie Doyle, are challenging Ayala to move out of his comfort zone. "Much of the work focuses on engaging outside parties and taking on different perspectives, and many of the class exercises require us to think and engage dynamically," said Ayala, who appreciates that Doyle brings her experiences in the nonprofit world into classroom discussions.
"Our coursework, especially with the focus on writing policy memos and making policy presentations, and the research I conducted complement one another," said Ayala. "There's a common thread between the academic work and the research; both emphasize parsing a great deal of data that might be confusing or difficult to analyze and distilling it down to a cohesive narrative that can be presented to an audience."
The Politics of Policymaking in Comparative Perspective class was team-taught by adjunct lecturers Carrie Nordlund and Shankar Prasad, who respectively also serve as Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Programs, and Dean of the School of Professional Studies and Vice President of Academic Innovation. In that course, Ayala welcomed being expected to bring his policy problems to the table, rather than being told what to think about. "It was rewarding to be given a great deal of freedom to figure out what I find important, and then apply the tools I am learning to resolve what I believe is an urgent problem," said Ayala, who focused on universal pre-kindergarten in Rhode Island and relevant legislation that was introduced in the General Assembly in 2023. "I was grateful to be allowed to dig into what was speaking to me."
