Hailey Martin

My Role: At MACP I help with administrative work, conducting and compiling short-term and long-term research for a variety of issues important to our organization, partner organizations and businesses. I also help plan and attend events around the city of Boston.

I Learned: So far I have learned how small and connected state government is in Massachusetts. Everybody seems to know everybody, so making sure you have a good reputation is important. Working for a nonpartisan nonprofit, it is interesting to see how more behind-the-scenes players operate in different policy areas and what relationships they can have both with legislators and private business owners. I'm also learning about what it means when we talk about being a competitive state and why competitiveness is important in the first place. In this role, I am growing my self-confidence every time I go to an event or am introduced to a new person in the ecosystem. I have also gotten a lot of practice making landscapes that MACP or one of our partners can keep ready if they need to refer back to its contents. 

How My Classes Helped: In my first intro public policy class, Controversies in Public Policy, those weekly one- to two-page memos really hammered in how important doing research and synthesizing it into the most crucial pieces of information is. That lesson has come in handy when I need to give event summaries or takeaways to my bosses.

How Will This Role Help Moving Forward: This role has given me clarity on how policy topics like public transportation or housing are talked about in both private and public sectors. Going forward with my degree in Public Policy when I'm proposing a certain policy, I will have a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes with regards to advocacy and collaboration that can make a policy successful or unsuccessful.