Student Profile: Coco Freling, MPP Class of 2022

Coco Freling never thought she would end up anywhere near policy.

She earned bachelor’s degrees in economics and marketing from Loyola Marymount University (LMU) and focused extensively on sustainability initiatives during her time as an undergraduate student. “I studied marketing to learn more about the psychology of how people respond to sustainability initiatives, but I learned it’s really more about the economics relating to the environment,” Freling said. In addition to doing research at LMU's Center for Urban Resilience, she started on-campus composting and gardening programs and dove into projects dealing with restorative justice practices, greenspace, and wetlands restoration.

Following college, Freling worked on market research and consumer behavior at Lieberman Research Worldwide. LLC. “While I loved working on the unique questions the clients came to us with, I wanted to do more than just help these brands grow, or get consumers to engage more with the brand,” she said. “I wanted to see how I could make more of a social impact.”

To broaden her perspective, Freling decided to travel with Remote Year, a community-based travel platform for remote workers, where she moved to a new country every month, including Portugal, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and countries across Latin America. She even lived in South Africa in the weeks leading up to Day Zero—the day Cape Town was projected to run out of water. “Working internationally I met a lot of people doing a lot of different work, which became part of the reason I wanted to shift my direction toward urban policy,” Freling said. Her travels opened her eyes to the importance of being able to distinguish how distinct histories shape the way people engage in their communities, with one another, with outsiders, and with the environment. “It really made me think about how policy determines those outcomes,” she said.

Freling came to the realization that she’d have to understand policy to make substantial change happen. “I never thought I would get into anything near politics or policy, but in order to have a substantial impact, this is something I need to know and learn about.”

Driven by her own interest in research, as well as a conversation with a professor she had in undergrad, Freling decided it was time to pursue a graduate degree.

It was the Mansueto Institute, with its interdisciplinary approach to urban policy, that initially drew Freling to UChicago and Harris. She also saw the value UChicago places upon open discussion and conversation as closely aligning with what she wanted out of graduate school. As for Harris specifically, Freling said she was interested partly by the technical skills offered, but primarily in the application of those skills. “I wanted an education that thinks more about how to integrate technical skills with critical thinking and the real world, and Harris offered that,” she said.

For incoming students, Freling advises to start working with the Career Development Office (CDO) as soon as possible. “The CDO has been really helpful in guiding me on how to apply what I’m learning at Harris to my next professional steps after the education part is over,” she said.

This summer, Freling will be interning at the Mansueto Institute, where she’ll focus on funding and completing funder briefs for the Institute to grow, as well as on conducting a broader look at the five-year plan and goals of the Institute. After graduating with her Master of Public Policy next spring, Freling hopes to explore the way circularity—eliminating waste and the continual use of resources—impacts urban development. “This past year I had the opportunity to work on a circular economy project through the Inter-Policy School Summit,” Freling said. “Through the summit, I was able to see that people are actually out there trying to make change and implement circularity. I would love to work on something like that, whether through research, nonprofit work, or the private sector.”