[MIP]: Can you tell me about your background before MIP?

[HK]: As an undergrad, I studied a mix of public health and Middle East-focused history and political science. After graduating in January 2021, I interned at a national security and foreign policy think tank in D.C. on their Middle East program. Six months in, during COVID, they had an opening on their health security team, which takes more of a securitized approach to health than a development one. During the pandemic, when health security was affecting every sector of the economy, it was a fascinating place to be. I stayed for about two years, but once the pandemic receded as a top priority, my job started to feel less interesting. I realized I was more interested in the crisis part of the pandemic than the public health part of it. I left for a Fulbright Fellowship in Tunisia, ostensibly doing environmental policy, but really I was interested in seeing what the legacy of the Arab Spring was 13 years later. I spent a year in Tunisia, then came to MIP.

Why did you decide to apply to MIP?

This is easier to answer in retrospect because it's hard to get a sense of how policy programs really differ until you’re in them. All the websites basically say the same things. But MIP stood out because of its smaller cohort and the genuine flexibility of its curriculum.  I could tell that the master’s program is the flagship rather than a cash cow for a PhD program, and Professor Fukuyama saw this program as his legacy project. Stanford seemed like an interesting place to do policy. Compared to other schools, it had a leaner core and made it really easy to access other parts of campus. Those structural differences made it feel like a different kind of program.

What was your main policy focus while you were here?

I actually came in planning to study environmental policy, but the summer before I got here, I decided to focus on technology. The world was changing quickly, and by summer 2024 it was clear AI was going to be a big deal. I realized I had the chance to be at Stanford at exactly this moment, so I leaned into it.

Reflecting on your two years, what stands out?

The campus environment is incredibly rich with people and ideas. MIP is a great platform into the rest of the university. There are so many communities, organizations, and classes that the hard part is deciding how to focus your time. I've been surprised by how easy it is to take courses at the school of engineering, and I also spent a lot of time at the business school. You can take the specific classes you find useful there, without having to go through the entire intensive core for the MBA. Many classes I took at Stanford were most useful not only for the substance but because of the people I got to meet and learn from, both faculty and students. But the most transformative part of the Stanford experience for me was just immersion in Silicon Valley’s approach to problem solving. You can feel this across all parts of campus.

What was the most rewarding part of your experience?

Really leaning into things I didn't know much about. I spent some of my first year doing entry-level computer science coursework with freshmen and sophomores. I took classes in technology strategy at the business school and electricity economics at the civil engineering department. Grad school is a great place to drop into domains you don’t understand and learn how to extract the narrative and policy implications that are interesting. MIP gives you such a great opportunity to constantly explore the technological frontier and sketch the policy questions that follow. It’s a lot of fun.

Tell us about your capstone experience.

I had a great capstone project with a startup called Rainmaker that does cloud seeding. Cloud seeding isn’t new, but they had two innovations: (1) using drones instead of manned aircraft, which lowers costs and increases precision, and (2) using advanced radar to track the impact of their seeding on cloud formation, a historically challenging problem. Our team focused on technology adoption in foreign markets, looking specifically at what it would take for Japan to adopt this kind of technology, considering both commercial and regulatory dimensions. We traveled there and talked to a bunch of stakeholders to figure out who could benefit most from frontier cloud seeding technology. We talked to agriculture collectives, development banks, the agriculture ministry, and large conglomerates with hydropower businesses. Because it involved a product we were effectively pitching, the work felt very real and tangible. I’m particularly grateful for the experience because the job I’m about to start involves a very similar problem, of how to take frontier technology through regulatory systems that weren’t designed with it in mind.

What's next for you after graduation?

I’ll be joining SpaceX to work on regulatory affairs for the Starlink team. Starlink offers a new way of doing telecommunications using low-orbit satellites instead of fiber connectivity or cell towers. Telecom tends to be a highly regulated space, and the existing rules weren’t designed for this kind of technology. I’ll be working on getting the necessary licenses and approvals Starlink needs to improve connectivity and internet access worldwide.

Is that where you saw yourself going when you first arrived at MIP?

Absolutely not. Even while at MIP, I didn't particularly focus on space, telecom, or satellites despite the many opportunities to do so at Stanford. But MIP was great for the meta-skill, which is to understand different stakeholders, map out their positions and incentives on specific policy interests, and figure out how to align the incentives of the critical stakeholders. The capstone really helped me practice this skillset. Even though the capstone was in a totally different sector and different technology, the meta-skill is the same.

How did MIP prepare you to make a policy impact in your career?

One of the great things about Frank [Fukuyama]'s vision for this program is that a lot of policy tends to be very risk-averse and threat-oriented, which makes sense as the stakes and cost of failure are often high. As a result, institutions are also risk-averse because they're often focused on the downsides. But the MIP program has absorbed a Silicon Valley mindset in thinking about opportunities and upsides. If we can manage risks reasonably, there's so much opportunity to creatively use policy as a tool to improve people's lives and achieve the desired outcomes. This is the ethos of the capstone program.

More generally, in my two years here, I have had so much exposure to people who’ve had real impact—both within MIP and across campus. I learned the most from classmates with longer careers who shared granular stories of how they solved specific problems, whether in policy or business or engineering. Hearing these stories expands my imagination of what is possible, and what I can do. Every time someone says, “Here’s a problem I faced and how I solved it,” you get a new reference point. That’s been very helpful for how I think about problem‑solving in policy.

What role has the MIP community played in your experience?

One advantage of a small cohort is you get to know everyone really well and we’re all quite collaborative. We’ve shared the unusual experience of being policy people at a school in Silicon Valley where most students focus on engineering. That’s not your typical policy-school experience. And the community extends beyond current students and remains engaged after graduation. I’m especially grateful that my capstone was set up by an MIP alum now at Rainmaker. He knew what would have been valuable when he was a student and recreated that for us. That effort and care mattered a lot, and it’s something I plan to pay forward.

What would you say to someone considering graduate studies in international affairs?

With so much technological and political change, being in California to study international policy is really special. You can get close to the technology and connect it to your interests, whether that’s environment, development, or security. The technological revolution that’s happening in San Francisco is something anyone in policy should understand. The MIP program positions you to take advantage of that. I came in with no tech context, so there’s no need to be intimidated if technology is an unfamiliar topic. Stanford helped me ramp up and become fluent at the forefront of technology simply by being here, through exposure and effort.

Any advice for the incoming class?

Spend time beyond the MIP program. There's so much on offer on campus. There are many biases in policy that aren't very resilient in a disruptive environment. Certain policy institutions and their purpose and relevance in the world are changing very fast. Get exposure to engineering and business to understand the internal logic of how those disciplines work, as they are nicely suited to examining or creating disruption. It will make your policy thinking stronger.

Also, because Stanford is so resource-rich and the policy presence is relatively small, it's possible—and incredibly useful—to become the person on campus who knows the most about something. Pick a niche, explore and obsess over it, and become the go-to person on that specific topic by summoning all the resources and subject matter experts around campus.

Are there final thoughts you'd like to share?

I think policy now requires more creativity about who does it, and how and where it gets done. Policy schools need to think about that and focus on creating future‑oriented policymakers who can anticipate what’s coming and lean into opportunities. That’s MIP. It’s well placed to anticipate where policy is going and help you reverse-engineer how to get there. The program is effective at preparing people with adaptable skills that can be used in the private sector just as much as the public or nonprofit sectors. And the capstone is a great illustration of how much policy is actually done by the private sector.

Lastly, I want to say I’ve had an awesome two years. The program has done a lot for me, and I’m really excited to see what more MIP can do, and who comes through the program next.