Alumni profile: Jimena Allendelagua, MPP’21

Jimena Allendelagua, MPP’21, said her grandfather has been a primary inspiration for her. “When his eldest child died due to a lack of rural health care options, he left the countryside for Mexico City where a series of good jobs allowed him to thrive.” 

Recalling her grandfather’s experience, Allendelagua said, encouraged her academic interests in labor markets. “While a student at El Colegio de Mexico, I assisted in academic research into the informal labor markets of downtown Mexico City. I recognized that creating quality jobs in my homeland could go a long way to solving both economic and social problems.”

After earning her bachelor’s degree in international affairs, Allendelagua worked for two years as an analyst and advisor to the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Office of the Chief of Staff. There, she helped organize an intergovernmental conference to promote Central American economic growth and also analyzed North American labor, trade, and border issues.

“Researching Mexico’s social-welfare program Prospera piqued my interest in domestic policy,” said Allendelagua. As part of a team responsible for interviewing the public officials who had implemented the program, she found herself face-to-face with passionate policymakers who had fought to help the nation’s most disenfranchised.

“They were so committed to having an impact on people who were from the poorest communities in Mexico,” she said. “These were people who were really out there, working directly with people. And it was eye opening to see how an individual can really make an impact if they become involved with the problems they believe need to be changed.”

Those same values also drew her to Harris.

“I was very inspired by the University of Chicago’s commitment to their surrounding community—not being apart from the people who they’re supposed to be working for,” Allendelagua said. “It’s very holistic: the human element of public policy.”

The combined quantitative and qualitative skills she acquired at Harris, Allendelagua said, have been critical for her as a Project Coordinator at Strategic Capacity Group, a nonprofit organization that focuses on enhancing institutional accountability and effectiveness.  “I provide program monitoring and evaluation, and the skills I gained from courses such as Program Evaluation and Survey Design have been invaluable,” she said. “Survey design is essential for anyone working with data. It helps ensure the quality of the data used for analysis is robust, and the insights gained from data analysis are only valuable if the foundation of the data is of good quality,” she said.

Extracurricular activities while at Harris, Allendelagua noted, also spurred her career interest. “My work within the Harris Student Organization Harris Community Action (HCA) fueled my passion for monitoring and evaluation: HCA provided me the opportunity to assist organizations in need of support in that field. I witnessed firsthand the significant impact that monitoring and evaluation can have on smaller local nonprofit organizations.” 

While Allendelagua was confident that Harris would help her own employment opportunities, she said earning a public policy degree was about much more than landing a good job—it’s about putting herself in a position to help others.

“With privilege goes responsibility,” Allendelagua said, quoting President John F. Kennedy. “I also want to give back and have a positive impact on people’s lives, and the work I am doing now does just that.”