I was originally a U.S. history master’s student but wanted to do research that influenced practical solutions and public policy. A mentor suggested an urban planning doctoral degree as a way to bring all my academic interests together. I chose my planning program because it was in a larger college made up of public administrators, nonprofit studies scholars, architects, and landscape architects. I heard about it through word of mouth from my mentor. As a master’s student I had been studying nonprofits in community development and became particularly interested in housing. As a doctoral candidate that interest led to a focus on multiple types of housing instability and precarity such as informal subdivisions, single resident occupancy buildings, affordable housing, and cooperative forms of housing. Someday I’d like to be able to say I had an influence on planning practices and policies that ensure affordable and stable housing for all.

I live in St Paul, MN with a family member and as an international student, working restrictions make it difficult to plan financially for my education. As such, the most important search factor when I was applying for my PhD program was the funding opportunity (ies). In addition, my personal experience draws me into planning. Using public transportation for my everyday activities: going to school, to buy groceries, attending events or getting to medical appointments, shapes the way I think about transportation. I am curious about the stories of riders I see in the rides we share. In the summer of 2021, while working for the City of Minneapolis as their Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Transportation Engagement Fellow, I learned about planning as a field and a scholarly discipline-more specifically transportation and its impact on our everyday lives-and it has since been the perfect fit both professionally and personally.

I was drawn to the PhD Program in urban planning at Columbia GSAPP because of the program's social-justice emphasis, connections to practice, and possibilities to help imagine and collectively build a more liberatory future. Planning History/Theory is a natural sub-field where I can pair archival and interview methods with grounded examinations of built environments. The best part of it all? Folks in Planning are kind, collaborative, and supportive of PhD students' work.