My name is Rayna and I’m from Manteca, California and currently living in College Station, Texas. I am a candidate for a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Public Policy Analysis, concentrating in Local Government at the George H.W. Bush School of Government and Public Service.
Throughout my education and professional experiences, I have learned the importance of acquiring strong interpersonal skills to facilitate teamwork and strong quantitative skills to interpret data and make statistical inferences. In my undergraduate career, I held two part-time jobs as a general manager at a fitness facility, CalFit, and an undergraduate economics tutor at my university, while also juggling a full course load.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics, I decided to pursue a graduate degree in public administration to study public policy. I chose a Policy Analysis track because the courses are data-driven and the curriculum focuses on government responses to problems, cost-benefit analyses, and risk assessment techniques. During my experiences at the Bush School, I developed a strong interest in municipal government and declared my own, individual concentration in Local Government. Aside from class, I have continued to engage in my research on various welfare policies across the nation, along with strengthening my skills in Stata and statistical analysis. Furthermore, during the summer of 2019, I interned for the Cato Institute, where I worked directly with the scholar, Michael Tanner, on Cato's Project on Poverty and Inequality in California. Upon my return to finish my second year at the Bush School, I was selected by Dr. Kalena Cortes to be her graduate research assistant on education policy and I became more actively involved with the International City/County Managers Association (ICMA) student chapter and with the Public Service Organization (PSO). The experiences in my undergraduate and graduate career are exemplified in my resume section.
Moving to Texas to pursue a master’s degree in Public Administration at the Bush School has been one of the greatest decisions I have ever made. My experiences at graduate school and interning at the Cato Institute helped me strengthened my passion for quantitative analysis and have significantly contributed to my passion of being a life-long learner. Additionally, my involvement in PSO and ICMA has reinforced my interest in municipal government, where I can directly see effects that my involvement and efforts impact my community. After the completion of my graduate studies, I will transition into a full-time position with the City of Navasota as an Economic Development Specialist.