Alyssa L. Hernandez

I am a third-year education policy and evaluation PhD student in the Department of Education Leadership and Policy Studies. This year I have also had the honor of serving as one of twelve Florida Gubernatorial Fellows.

The Florida Gubernatorial Fellowship is a nonpartisan nine-month leadership program under the governor’s office that includes a rigorous job experience where fellows are placed at different agencies under the governor’s purview with the goal that fellows see how public service in state government operates. Fellows attend weekly leadership seminars with influential government leader speakers. Fellows also participate in service events, an awesome team-building trip, and policy excursions to D.C. and the Florida panhandle. To apply, applicants must submit several short essays, including a short policy proposal, and go through two rounds of intensive interviews. Once selected, fellows and agencies begin the placement process.

After interviewing with several agencies, I was selected by my first-choice agency, the Department of Juvenile Justice Office of Probation and Community Intervention. On my first day, and really within the first hour, I was sitting at a table surrounded by statewide leaders across multiple agencies including the Department of Children and Families and the Department of Health. I sat bright eyed and bushy tailed in awe of watching the ‘policy process’ I had studied for many years as the group discussed how to solve some of the Florida’s toughest issues relating to children.

I have had the opportunity to not just watch these state leaders but also to participate in department initiatives. In thinking of all I have done in a few short months, I struggle on what to share. To name a few, I have helped evaluate new policies, identify best practices, plan trainings, participate in trainings, create surveys, write a press release, attend a Children and Youth Cabinet meeting, analyze data, and create forms for collecting better interagency data. I truly believe that no other "internship," or frankly any entry-level position, could have given me the immediate access and opportunities I have enjoyed as a fellow.

While all those activities seem like they could be distracting to my work as a full-time graduate student, I have the fortune of being placed at an agency that is supportive of my research and understands how to hone my passion for policies that involve the most vulnerable youth. I have long been interested in what has become known as “the school to prison pipeline.” This pipeline describes the large percentage of the nation’s youth, who too often are Black or brown, urban, poor and male, that are pulled out of classrooms and swept into the justice system. Working at the Department of Juvenile Justice has shown me firsthand what is at stake. Knowing what happens to these often forgotten youth is not easily shaken. As I witness the end of that pipeline, I am encouraged to find school- and community-based solutions that will keep youth in classrooms and schools. I hope to explore school-based student discipline, specifically looking at school-based arrest implications and alternatives, for my dissertation. I have no doubts that being a Gubernatorial Fellow is making me a better scholar.

The Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards (OGFA) has been an invaluable resource for me as a graduate student. It is evidence of the Graduate School’s commitment to its students. They regularly make you aware of opportunities for recognition of the hard work you are already doing at every stage of your graduate experience. In my first year, I applied unsuccessfully for a fellowship, then, with OGFA’s encouragement, I applied for another and was selected! As I finish my coursework and continue this year as a Florida Gubernatorial Fellow, I am already positioning myself to apply for dissertation fellowships in the next year. OGFA has always had my back, and I look forward to finding success with their help again. My advice for graduate students at any stage in their studies is to use the office early and often! Keep applying and know that you don’t have to do so by yourself. Use the support at your discretion, and you, too, will find success.