Alumni Profile: Anna Gurolnick, AM/MPP’24

Hoping to make an impact at the intersection of social and education policy, Anna Gurolnick sought a program that would give her a more nuanced perspective on social issues and policymaking. “There is often a disconnect between what happens at the policy creation level and implementation, sometimes because policymakers are not well informed about the root causes of the issues,” she said.

Gurolnick said she was attracted to The University of Chicago because of the option to earn a joint degree at The Harris School of Public Policy and The Crown School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.  “Harris granted me the ability to translate complex information and policy terminology for a general audience, and Crown allowed me to dive deeper into the policy issues themselves.”

Gurolnick also emphasized the importance of community during her studies at Harris and Crown. “I think the surrounding community of Hyde Park played a very influential role in my time there. Collaboration and diversity of perspectives is very important to me. Generally, I think how we approach policy should be more community-oriented, so being involved directly in the communities I wanted to benefit played a big part in my time at UChicago. This allowed me to find work that let me not only do research, but also gave me direct practice helping Chicago communities.”

For example, while at UChicago, Gurolnick worked as a Research Assistant at Chapin Hall, a policy-oriented research institution that focuses on child welfare, community capacity, and youth homelessness. “I spent a considerable amount of time looking at how social-emotional learning can be connected with mental health, restorative practices, and school climate and worked on a study about teacher stress and the outward effects it can have on classroom learning and school climate. I also interned with Metropolitan Family Services, a non-profit organization that provides educational, legal, and emotional wellness services to low-income individuals and families.”

After graduating with her dual degree, Gurolnick took some time to recharge and seek guidance from mentors. She then shifted into direct service work as a school-based therapist at Broader Urban Involvement & Leadership Development (BUILD), a Chicago-based nonprofit that serves the West Side of Chicago and works to reduce community violence. At BUILD, she provides high school students with individual and group therapy and focuses on helping them overcome trauma by building resilience and utilizing restorative justice practices.

“I’m proud to have recently completed restorative justice training at BUILD through their Peace and Justice Center and help bring these practices to the school and contribute towards creating a more restorative system. This means hosting conversations and facilitating peace circles to mediate disputes between students and staff members. It also means creating more leadership opportunities and ways for students to engage more with our school and the larger community,” said Gurolnick. “This work has really solidified my belief that more power should be given to community members to ensure that policy that is intended for them is accessible.”

Gurolnick said having graduated with her dual degree from the University of Chicago, she feels a sense of responsibility to the surrounding community. “UChicago graduates play a big role in shaping policy, so it’s important to recognize our power and use it to challenge inequitable systems that have been normalized.”