Program Assistant Introduction: Hannah Taschbach LSE-Columbia MPA ‘27

Hannah Taschbach is a second-year Master of Public Administration candidate in the LSE-Columbia Double MPA program. She spent her first year at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London and is now joining SIPA for her second year to concentrate in International Security and Diplomacy, with a minor in Human Rights, Gender and Equity. She graduated from the Free University of Berlin with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, having spent a semester abroad at Sciences Po Paris focusing on human rights and gender policy. Hannah has volunteered for different causes and has been active in the German Green Party for many years. She is a proud recipient of the ERP Fellowship for public service by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and the Resistance Scholarship by the Point Foundation, and wants to work on the protection of marginalized groups, especially LGBTQIA+ people. At SIPA, she is part of the International Fellows Program cohort and is active in Columbia’s Queer Alliance. 

What were you doing before you came to SIPA? 

Before I came to SIPA, I spent the first year of my degree at LSE in London. This first year really expanded my skillset, as LSE offers a very rigorous education in micro and macro economics, quantitative methods and policy evaluation. This was quite challenging for me, as I wasn’t exposed to this subject matter at this high of a level before, but I know I grew from the challenge and will profit from the skills I acquired for many years to come. During the summer before I started at SIPA, I interned at the British House of Commons and was a fellow for the Reykjavik Global Forum through the Council of Women World Leaders Graduate Fellowship Program. Before I moved to London, I lived in Berlin, where I worked at the Berlin House of Representatives, the Federal Parliament and the Federal Foreign Office. 

What experiences prepared you?

Honestly, I think what prepared me most for this experience is my continued engagement for public service. I started volunteering in support of education for Brazilian girls when I was eleven years old, ultimately traveling to Sobradinho, Brazil to meet the girls I had been supporting for years from afar. I have since then continuously tried to give back to society in different ways. Among others, I worked with refugee children and children and adults with disabilities while I was still in school, and later went on to volunteer for an elementary school and women’s empowerment project in South Africa. In Germany, I was politically active for the Green Party in different roles and completed an eleven month federal voluntary service at a psychiatric hospital. All of these different experiences have given me an outlook on life that is of course not objective, as no individual person can ever achieve that, but that makes as little assumptions as possible about other people’s lived realities and that holds space for all kinds of experiences. People are different, and that’s not only ok but a beautiful thing. Those experiences have taught me that there is nobody in this world you couldn’t learn something from, no matter how different they are from you. I believe this realization to be the most important thing I’ll be taking with me to Columbia SIPA. This ability opens me up to the possibility of truly connecting with all kinds of different people, which is really the essence of the human experience.

What attracted you to SIPA and Columbia University? 

It has actually been a dream of mine to study at Columbia University, and at SIPA specifically, for many years. The university and the school especially stand out for its rich diversity that is in this form so unique, because it’s visible in every part of the institution. The student body is incredibly diverse, not just regarding country of origin, ethnicity, religion, class and sexual orientation, but also regarding political views. One example of this is the International Fellows Program I’m a part of. It includes 30 people from completely different walks of life: from Columbia’s Law and Business Schools to SIPA and from active members of the military to political activists. There is a place for everybody here and I’m certain that every member of the community will profit from this diversity. There can be no growth without being challenged. In your beliefs, in your assumptions and in your world view. I’m not just looking forward to that but am deeply grateful for this unique opportunity.     

What advice do you have for current applicants? 

Try to stay with yourself, instead of looking outward. I know it’s really hard to not compare yourself to others, when the stakes are so high. It’s almost impossible to convey all of the different facets that make you you in a few hundred words of essays or in a video message of a few minutes. But this process is designed to challenge you, and you’re not here because you want to find out if you can do it, but because you know that you can. Someone’s gotta make it, why wouldn’t it be you? 

We are so excited to have Hannah be on our team this year! Stay tuned to hear from our other program assistants this month.