W&L Outcomes: Shanna Kim ’24 Kim is pursuing her Master of Public Policy at Duke University.

Office of Communications and Public Affairs
July 16, 2024

Shanna Kim ’24
Major: Double major in anthropology and politics with a minor in poverty and human capabilities studies
Hometown: Kernersville, North Carolina

What will you be doing after graduation?

I will be pursuing my Master of Public Policy from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

How did your career plans evolve over the course of your time at W&L?

Coming into W&L, I had my mind set on going to law school and being a practicing lawyer, so I took classes that I thought would fit nicely with my postgrad plans. Some of these courses included policy classes like the Anthropology of Public Policy, Introduction to Public Policy and Introduction to Criminology, which exposed me to different ways of thinking about the law from the policy perspective and began to shape my interest in how and why policies are created. In my junior year, I also studied abroad for a semester at Oxford, where I took a tutorial called Family Policy. While abroad, I was able to dig into the creation, implementation and implications of different family policies in various countries. During my time abroad, I realized that I was much more passionate about policy work than I was about the thought of practicing law and began to pivot my postgrad plans toward public policy.

What internships or other summer experiences did you partake in, and how did those experiences shape you and your career plans?

The summer after my first year at W&L, I found myself with two internship offers (and at that point, I didn’t know how to turn down an offer), so I worked in person at Project Horizon in Lexington through the Shepherd Internship while I was working in a remote internship with a nonprofit organization called Free the Facts. Project Horizon is a local shelter and support center for victims of violence, and Free the Facts is a nonpartisan organization that aims to make economic policy more accessible to college students. The next summer, the summer after sophomore year, I was a Summer Research Scholar with my anthropology adviser, Lynny Chin, where I got hands-on qualitative research experience. Finally, during the summer after my junior year, I worked in the Office of Impaired Driving and Occupant Protection at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) within the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C.

Working at Project Horizon and Free the Facts my first year opened my eyes to the different realms of policy work. I spoke with clients at Project Horizon and learned about gaps in policies that had the potential to retraumatize survivors of violence, while at the same time, I was researching pension plans in different states and becoming familiar with comparative policies across states. Working as a Summer Research Scholar taught me how to read and summarize dense literature and gave me the skills to conduct research at my next internship and in my anthropology capstone. My work and academic experience culminated at NHTSA where I found gaps in adolescent-impaired driving policy, compared these policies across different states, read and processed literature about traffic safety and presented a research project and policy recommendations about adolescent marijuana-impaired driving to transportation specialists across offices in the DOT. As they say, I was “bit by the service bug” that summer, and I am excited to learn more about policy work at Duke.

How did the Office of Career and Professional Development support you, and which resources did you find most helpful?

In my first semester at W&L, I took FYE 100 where one of our assignments was to meet with CPD to do a resume review and learn about everything that CPD has to offer. Since then, I think I’ve met with CPD formally at least once a semester, informally maybe once a week. Many times, formal meetings have been in the form of a meeting with Lorri Olan (senior associate director of CPD) to talk about postgrad stressors like the LSAT when I planned on going to law school or trying to figure out which graduate school program I should put down a deposit for. More informally, many of my friends are career fellows, and I’ve roped them to my table at Coop or at lunch at my sorority house and have asked them to look over resumes, cover letters and applications. I always feel confident when I send off my applications because I know that everyone at CPD will be honest with me and tell me if a line in my application isn’t working or change the wording in a line on my resume to fit better with the job posting. CPD has helped me so much, so it’s hard to put into words what has been the most helpful for me.

What did you study at W&L and what are some skills or learnings you will take from your academic experience into the professional world?

I am graduating with a double major in anthropology and politics with a minor in poverty and human capabilities studies. During my first year, I was in an upper-level history class, and I remember being in a class discussion about the homework assignment for the night before. I couldn’t help but think about how well-spoken and respectful the seniors in that class were. Even still, I think the skill I’m most thankful to have developed at W&L is my ability to present myself in the professional world. While I can talk about research projects I’ve worked on and reference readings I’ve had to do for classes in conversations with my bosses and mentors, without classroom discussions at W&L, I would never be able to confidently talk about the report I read — let alone know where to start. W&L has helped me develop my sense of self, and for that, I feel very lucky.

What clubs, organizations, athletic teams or other extracurriculars were you involved in that had an impact on you?

While on campus, my two biggest engagements were with the Bonner Program at W&L and with the University Wind Ensemble. As a Bonner, I had the opportunity to work with a variety of service partners, but my involvement with Blue Ridge Mile has been life-changing. Blue Ridge Mile is a free clinic that helps individuals obtain or re-obtain their driver’s licenses after they get revoked by the courts. Learning about the cyclical nature of license revocation through working with Blue Ridge Mile sparked my interest in transportation policy, which has only expanded further into social policies and energy policy.

Through my involvement in the University Wind Ensemble, I was able to continue playing French horn throughout college. It also opened a door for me to rehearse and perform with the Rockbridge Symphony during my last semester of college, which was one of my favorite Lexington experiences. Being able to connect with my college town and Lexington community members in these two distinct ways has not only developed professional passions but has also helped me feel more connected to little Lexington before I go out into the big world.

Who or what has inspired you along the way?

My parents have been a constant source of inspiration for me throughout my life. My parents immigrated to the U.S. when my dad came to pursue his Ph.D., and they have both sacrificed so much for my brother and me. They have always been my biggest cheerleaders, but especially in college and about my postgraduate plans. I am incredibly lucky to have such inspiring people to look up to.

Did you connect with alumni during your career development process?

I connected with a few alumni. I met Shiri Yadlin at a Shepherd event and talked to her about her career trajectory and graduate school. I learned that we were involved in a lot of similar things at W&L and enjoyed hearing about her experience obtaining her Master of Public Policy at Georgetown. I was also connected with a Shepherd alumni mentor, Kerriann Shebanowitz, who went straight to graduate school after leaving W&L and has been working in a cabinet-level agency since then — something similar to what I hope to do. Connecting with alumni is always enriching for me because it opens my mind to the different things that W&L graduates do with their degrees. I look forward to meeting with more alumni and creating similar connections with W&L students after I graduate.

What career-related advice would you give to next year’s graduating class?

Ask people how they ended up in their current careers and tell them about your long-term plans if you have them. My supervisor at the DOT helped me set up one-on-one meetings with people throughout the agency and gave me (essentially) the same advice. I learned three things from those one-on-one meetings. First, people love talking about the paths they took to get to their current careers. Second, people take interesting paths to end up in the transportation sector. Third, people will give you advice that can change your life. Throughout these one-on-one meetings, I learned about the different degrees that people held, got advice about taking a gap year between undergrad and graduate school (or not), graduate school loan management, the different jobs available with certain degrees and everything in between.