Eighteen Executive Master of Public Administration graduates received their degrees.
On 9 September, the Hertie School conferred degrees on 18 graduates of the Executive Master of Public Administration (Executive MPA). After the pandemic pushed classes and graduation online for the past two years, the 2022 Executive MPA graduation ceremony took place in person again, with about 30 guests attending.
An executive master's: Bridging the gap between theory and practice
"Your diversity in background and richness in experience have enabled you to take on a very special perspective among all students at the Hertie School,” Hertie School President Cornelia Woll addressed the graduates at the ceremony. “With one leg in your jobs throughout the course of your studies, you were able to connect the real-world issues of the machine rooms of decision-making with rigorous scientific training in order to find not only the best but also the most applicable solutions to the pressing questions of today."
Because of the executive programme’s flexible nature, many graduates joined the master’s programme at different times, often alongside full-time jobs or while reorienting their career paths with advanced education in governance, leadership and management.
Oby Ezekwesili: Beyond a job-seeker's mindset
Woll then introduced commencement speaker Dr. Obiageli “Oby” Ezekwesili, President of Human Capital Africa and Senior Economic Advisor of the Africa Economic Development Policy Initiative. Ezekwesili shared what it menat to her to follow “an assignment”, a socio-political duty, rather than a lucrative job. “The tasks that our privileges have assigned us today are too numerous to have the job-seeker's mindset," she said. "We who have been trained in policy schools know that policy windows are usually fleeting and span a short period, when we must rise as though no one else is available to do that one thing that we know could make a difference.”
This year’s student-elected class speakers were Mariana de la Roche Wills, a human rights lawyer from Colombia who started the programme in 2021, and Hannah Bauer Burton, a social development officer from Sweden who joined in 2019.
The graduation ceremony concluded with an exhibition and award ceremony for this year’s top three Executive Master of Public Administration master’s thesis poster winners: Clemens Viernickel of Germany, Elena Liotta of the United States, and Caroline Assad of Egypt.
The new Hertie School graduates will now return to their organisations or embark on new career paths, continuing to influence their institutions and communities with their training in public management, digitalisation and innovation. They join a global alumni network of more than 2000 change-makers working to promote good governance in all sectors around the world.
Explore all graduates’ profiles in our CV book.