Skip to main content

School of Education and Social Policy

The world’s first School of Education and Social Policy, we are committed to helping people, places, and institutions thrive.  

Career Outcomes

School of Education and Social Policy (SESP) alumni are prepared for a wide range of careers in the for-profit, non-profit, and governmental sectors. Learn more about career pathways for our graduates.

How She Got There

Alexandra Sims-Jones ('10), founder and CEO of APS & Associates 

Explore the pathway of an alumna who studied social policy.

Placeholder

Think of it as a direction you're headed in. You can bounce around in that funnel but try to stay in that direction...I would tell my 20-year-old self to follow what excites you, what energizes you, and what gives you passion.”

Alexandra Sims-Jones

Sims, who studied social policy, joined the Coro Fellowship Program after graduating from Northwestern. She went on to serve as state director for Missouri in President Obama’s 2012 campaign and later directed the country’s largest voter registration campaign, registering over 400,000 voters in four months as the founder and first executive director of Chicago-based Every Vote Counts. In 2016, Sims launched her public affairs firm, APS & Associates; she and her team have collaborated with partners across the country, including Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, the Obama Foundation, Bally’s Casino and more. Honored by Crain's Chicago Business as one of the city's outstanding young leaders, she urges SESP students to view their careers not as a series of disconnected dots but rather as a funnel.

Experiential Learning

The School of Education and Social Policy’s much-loved practicum–a quarter long off-campus internship for juniors coupled with an academic seminar–has jump-started the careers of countless alumni. The program is offered year-round, and students can be remote or hybrid in US locations. Those who wish to study abroad can complete the practicum in another country. Students pursuing teaching gain classroom experience through their practicum and student teaching in their senior year.

Working for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) allowed me to take on several meaningful projects that affirmed my passion for transportation policy. In the future, I hope to support strong infrastructure across Colorado using the lessons I learned at CDOT.”

Aimee Resnick, Social Policy Concentration (’25)
Photo of Aimee Resnick

Read more about Aimee Resnick’s practicum experience with the State of Colorado.  

Explore some of the recent internship placements for School of Education and Social Policy undergraduates.

  • 2112 Chicago
  • Center on Wrongful Convictions: Bluhm Legal Clinic
  • Chicago Public Education Fund
  • Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Office of Access and Enrollment
  • Chicago Red Stars
  • City of Evanston
  • ePlus Technology
  • Ernst & Young
  • FCB Chicago
  • Field Museum, Learning Center
  • First Five Years Fund
  • Global Fund to End Modern Slavery
  • Growth Catalyst Partners
  • Illinois Prison Project
  • Infant Welfare Society
  • Intrinsic Edge Capital Management
  • JAB Real Estate
  • Lurie Children's Hospital, Childhood & Adolescent Psychiatry
  • McGuire Woods Consulting
  • Priority Sports and Entertainment
  • The Monogram Group
  • UCI Accessibility Research Collective
  • Urban Institute
  • US Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Fiscal Service
  • Valor International School
  • YMCA of the USA

Graduate and Professional Degrees

29%
of SESP graduates enroll in graduate or professional school the year after they graduate

Recent Graduate and Professional School Placements 

  • Babson College
  • Brown University  
  • Erasmus International Master’s in Global Markets 
  • Harvard Law School  
  • Hack Reactor 
  • Howard University 
  • HEC Paris 
  • San Francisco Conservatory of Music 
  • Texas A & M University 
  • University of California, Berkeley 
  • The University of Chicago  
  • University of Colorado Boulder 
  • University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
  • University of Oxford 
  • University of Southern California 
  • University of Virginia 
  • Vanderbilt University 
  • Yale University  
  • Yeshiva University 

SESP's Civic Engagement Certificate

The two-year, six-credit program  helps students understand the forces that affect communities and gives them a deeper grasp of how to work for positive change. Open to all Northwestern freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, the program blends community work with classroom learning, focusing on participatory policymaking, budgeting, and policy implementation for social change.

Learn more about the program and how to apply

Meet a Fellowship Winner

Photo of Isabella Twocrow

Learning Tribal Politics and Policy

Isabella Twocrow was Northwestern’s first recipient of the Native American Congressional Internship from the Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Foundation, a federal agency that supports work in fields related to tribal policy, the environment and Native American health care.  Twocrow, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is Oglala Lakota and a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation. She is interested in tribal law and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Learning and Organizational Change and Native American and Indigenous studies. 

Read more about Twocrow’s experience in Northwestern Magazine.

Keep Exploring

Connect with and learn more about School of Education and Social Policy graduates.