Setting Yourself up for Success

Ainsley Zapata '26, a 2025 Public Policy and International Affairs fellow. Photo Provided by Ainsley Zapata

Ainsley Zapata ’26, a political science and Spanish major with a minor in sociology, has been named a 2025 Public Policy and International Affairs fellow. She will be spending her summer taking classes at the University of Michigan to enhance her public policy skills and prepare her for graduate school. 

Additionally, Zapata is the merchandise coordinator for Santa Clara University’s club swim team, a government and ethics fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, the president of Santa Clara Panhellenic and a member of political science honor society Phi Sigma Alpha. 

At the start of college, Zapata wasn’t sure what career path she wanted to take. She tested the waters of working on political campaigns, but wasn’t super intrigued. Recently, however, Zapata got the opportunity to attend a speaker event featuring Jennifer O’Malley Dillon—the Biden 2020 and Harris 2024 campaign manager. After the event, Zapata even got the chance to have dinner with O’Malley Dillon. “That was really fun, we got to ask her questions. She was awesome. I was so excited when I saw that she was coming,” said Zapata.

During the end of her sophomore year she “had the freak out” about her future, a shared experience for many college students. “Then I realized that I could go to grad school. I don’t know why I didn’t realize that that was a thing that I could just do if I wanted to. And so I started asking around and started talking to professors about going to grad school for public policy.”

“Remember that sometimes it’s not nepotism, it’s using your resources,” said Zapata on how to find opportunities for success. “Sometimes it’s just about using that phone number, that email, and reaching out. People do this all the time, that’s how they get jobs.”

Zapata attributes the encouragement to apply for her summer fellowship to the political science department faculty: “They were really helpful. Professor Matthew Harrigan read all of my essays for this application a million times and sat with me during his office hours a bunch in the fall. I think I got lucky in terms of having professors that I could talk to, and they were able to give me pretty good suggestions of who to talk to and what to do next,” she said.

In addition to the political science department, Zapata had a strong support system to lean on during the stressful hours leading up to her receiving her fellowship decision. She recalls her roommate, Cheryl Jenkins, texting her saying: “You’re gonna be fine, it’s gonna be fine.” Zapata’s mom also helped calm her anxieties. “On the morning of, she was telling me ‘It's gonna be okay, I love you,’” said Zapata.

Along with the classes that are meant to help the fellows get ready to further their public policy education, Zapata will also be given a scholarship to help with the costs of graduate school and connections to over 100 graduate schools that support the program. 

For students who are also interested in politics, specifically public policy, Zapata encourages students to be patient and trust themselves. “It’s okay if you don’t know exactly what you want to do. Especially for public policy, people feel a lot of pressure to have it all figured out, but you really don’t,” said Zapata. “It’s okay to take a bunch of classes and figure out ‘Do I like this? Do I like that? Is this what I want to do?’ Be okay if you don’t know yet, because I promise you you’ll probably figure it out eventually, it’s not the end of the world.” 

She also had some advice for how to navigate the competitive world of internships and fellowships: “I know it’s so hard, but just keep applying. I applied to so many things. Just keep trying.” Zapata took time during our interview to emphasize the importance of using your resources to your advantage and to not be nervous to use the tools you have to get the opportunities you deserve. She said, “If you ask the business students, that’s networking, not nepotism.”

With all the advice she was giving to others, Zapata wanted to share the best advice someone has given to her: “I heard it this past year and now I hear it all the time: ‘closed mouths don’t get fed.’ So, you can’t just wait for opportunities to come up to you, because there is a lot of active searching that is involved and you have to go out and get those things. Even just asking for advice after an interview if you got rejected and asking ‘What can I do better?’”

After Zapata completes her educational desires, she hopes to work as a legislative director for a representative or senator with the ultimate goal to become a presidential chief of staff.