--- title: "Bridging My Passion to My Profession: Getting an MPA at Cornell University" description: CIPA provides the missing link that bridges my passion to my profession. Just over a quarter of the way into this graduate program, and I’m already more empowered to navigate many of the professional obstacles I endured prior to enrolling at Cornell. image: https://mpastories.publicpolicy.cornell.edu/hubfs/blog/Bridging-My-Passion-to-My-Profession-Getting-an-MPA-at-Cornell-University.png --- Search: February 21, 2019 # Bridging My Passion to My Profession: Getting an MPA at Cornell University ![Bridging My Passion to My Profession: Getting an MPA at Cornell University-image](https://mpastories.publicpolicy.cornell.edu/hubfs/blog/Bridging-My-Passion-to-My-Profession-Getting-an-MPA-at-Cornell-University.png) Professionally, I’m admittedly “all over the map”. I’ve explored careers in financial services, advertising, and have sustained a part-time career as a musician since first entering the workforce in 2011. An unwavering fascination of democracy and the democratic process, however, was instilled in me during my first job out of college when I joined the *Obama-Biden* reelection campaign (headquartered in my mid-west hometown of Chicago, Illinois) as an entry-level member of the organization’s *national advance team*. My level of excitement and engagement as an *advancer* far exceeded anything I considered professionally possible. Following the campaign’s victory that November, the organization that provided to me my first “real job” naturally dissolved, and I was faced with considering other professional avenues — at least for the time-being. [![Explore our digital resource page for MPA students — Enacting Change: Tailoring Your MPA to Focus on Policy in the United States!](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/4638968/add0ccc3-d4ee-41fc-b01b-271f2f393efc.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/4638968/add0ccc3-d4ee-41fc-b01b-271f2f393efc) ## Returning to my political- and government-related aspirations: Financial services and advertising never captured my attention in the way that political campaigns had and I consistently returned to political contracting in between (and sometimes alongside) those less compelling pursuits. This recurring tendency is what encouraged my return to graduate school as a candidate here at Cornell University. Earlier last year, a less enthusiastic foray into financial services was straying me away from my true aspirations for a career politics and government and the window to fully commit myself to public service had opened. ![Grant OBrien](https://mpastories.publicpolicy.cornell.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/blog/Grant%20OBrien.jpg?width=300&name=Grant%20OBrien.jpg) ## Choosing CIPA's MPA Program: Despite my tenacity, however, I struggled to identify a way to support this endeavor by staying relevant outside of political election cycles. The decision to pursue a *Master’s of Public Administration *degree through *Cornell’s Institute for Public Affairs* (CIPA) was arrived at after recognizing that my prior experience had not afforded me the skillset needed to migrate from a successful campaign towards an effective administration in a role that felt fulfilling. My developed skillset, while having served me well thus far, simply wasn’t transferable towards other careers within politics and government. *It was widely apparent that a more comprehensive understanding of political theory and quantitative analysis was clearly required in order to make the positive impact that I desired.* Without delay, the CIPA curriculum efficiently hits the ground running through its foundational course offering. One semester in: *Intro to Public Administration* explored a series of analytical case studies addressing real-world consequences of effective and ineffective public management practices. *Politics, Policy Studies, and Political Management *introduced the full gambit of all important policy positions ranging from health care to comprehensive immigration reform. Into the spring semester, *Intergovernmental Relations* lends insight into an area of public management my professional career has been largely devoid of until now and our understanding of the concepts learned is challenged through *Consulting for the Non-profit and Government Organizations*; a course that organizes its students into consulting teams with actual clients in the spirit of aiding a topical cause. Evidently, CIPA provides the missing link that bridges my passion to my profession. Just over a quarter of the way into this graduate program, and I’m already more empowered to navigate many of the professional obstacles I endured prior to enrolling at Cornell. CIPA approaches skill-development aggressively — it’s well-resourced, efficient and to-the-point from day one onward. Through CIPA’s influence, I’m unquestionably more capable of ensuring that my professional career is well-aligned with my personal ambitions. *Grant O’Brien is a first year CIPA student from Chicago, Illinois focusing his studies on government, politics, and policy studies. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree studying political science from Loyola University New Orleans in 2011 and a Masters of Business Administration from DePaul University in 2013. Among other professional considerations, Grant has remained politically active primarily as a logistics (advance) coordinator for members of the Democratic Party during most of the last decade.* ## Explore our digital resource page — **An Educational Guide for Future Leaders in Public Affairs** — for an in-depth look at what it would mean to pursue a Master of Public Administration! [![Explore the MPA Resource](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/4638968/e198f41c-0325-4cb2-afc9-2e1165f890ab.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/4638968/e198f41c-0325-4cb2-afc9-2e1165f890ab) Previous Post Jumping Into the Second Semester of a Uniquely Flexible MPA Program Next Post Meet an Infrastructure Policy Expert — John Foote ## READ MORE ON THE BLOG [VIEW ALL BLOGS](https://mpastories.publicpolicy.cornell.edu/blog) BLOG ### MPA Capstone: How Working With a Startup Refined My Professional Skills Marcell Fischler graduated from CIPA in May of 2019 with a concentration in [Science, Technology,...](https://www.human.cornell.edu/cipa/academics/curriculum/concentrations/science) BLOG ### 5 Myths Surrounding Public Administration Jobs — Debunked We all crave purpose. Think about it — why is figuring out the meaning of life such a popular... BLOG ### CIPA Capstone Project #1 – Zeal Technologies & Cannabis Packaging *Capstone projects are an indispensable component of the CIPA curriculum, providing students with...* ## Subscribe to the Blog ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Grant O'Brien", "url" : "https://mpastories.publicpolicy.cornell.edu/blog/author/grant-obrien" }, "dateModified" : "2019-03-13T18:18:06.955Z", "datePublished" : "2019-02-21T11:21:00.000Z", "headline" : "Bridging My Passion to My Profession: Getting an MPA at Cornell University", "image" : [ "https://mpastories.publicpolicy.cornell.edu/hubfs/blog/Bridging-My-Passion-to-My-Profession-Getting-an-MPA-at-Cornell-University.png" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://mpastories.publicpolicy.cornell.edu/blog/bridging-my-passion-to-my-profession-getting-an-mpa-at-cornell-university", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://mpastories.publicpolicy.cornell.edu/hubfs/Logos/SPP_1_line_red_black.png" }, "name" : "Cornell Inst. for Public Affairs" } } ```