Going Back to Give Back — Caren Yap’s Full-Circle Journey through Harvard Kennedy School

“Being from Las Vegas is 90% of my personality,” says Caren Yap, MPP ’25. Born in Saudi Arabia to Filipino parents, she moved to Vegas at a young age. Today, she proudly embraces the city not just for what it gets right, but for how much room it has to grow.

Her immigrant background, combined with her upbringing in Nevada — a state that ranks 48th in education — shaped her awareness of just how difficult social and economic mobility can be. That firsthand experience, along with a desire to advance worker protections and opportunities in her community, ultimately led her to pursue graduate studies.

When Yap arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she worried she might lose sight of her “why”: her commitment to the people and places that shaped her. Instead, she says, her time at Harvard only deepened her resolve to serve Las Vegas and help her community thrive.

From Nevada to the Northeast

Yap’s path to the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) stands out as an exception to the typical graduate admissions narrative. She began her graduate studies immediately after completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) — a rarity among HKS students. She credits this trajectory to the Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship Program, which she completed the summer before her senior year.

As a commuter student, Yap sought out opportunities outside the classroom to gain hands-on experience in public service. While still in college, she worked at the Nevada State Legislature for the 2023 Legislative Session and participated in voter registration efforts during the 2020 and 2022 elections — experiences that fueled her commitment to strengthening democracy and promoting civic engagement.

“[UNLV] was a commuter school, where 90% of students don’t have traditional on-campus living experiences, and it has an 86% acceptance rate,” Yap explains, reflecting on the resource gaps and structural differences that shaped her college years. While she felt excited for HKS, the transition still surprised her. The culture, both in and out of the classroom, challenged her to further explore her passions and rethink her approach to learning.

Finding Her Voice in a New Academic Culture

Arriving in Cambridge, Yap was struck by the stark contrast in classroom culture between her undergraduate experience and HKS. “Participating more than once or twice a semester in class was abnormal,” she recalls of her time as an undergraduate. “Coming to HKS, where most students’ parents have LinkedIn, was a foreign concept to me.”

For Yap, the juxtaposition between Las Vegas and Cambridge underscored how differences in opportunity can shape access and confidence, which at times left her feeling out of place. “I was often the only person from Las Vegas or the Southwest area in my class in general. I thought I knew how to navigate institutions comfortably, but I simultaneously felt isolated,” she explains.

Sensing her struggle to adapt, Yap’s first semester statistics professor Teddy Svoronos pulled her aside one day and recommended she read The Privileged Poor. “The book captures the experience of first-generation, low-income students coming to elite institutions, and it helped me to find my footing,” Yap says.

Summoning Strength through Difference

When she first arrived at HKS, Yap thought she had a solid understanding of diversity. Coming from UNLV — one of the top five most diverse universities in the country, where over half the students are considered non-traditional — she had been immersed in an environment rich in racial, cultural, and generational differences. But HKS challenged her assumptions.

“I think that the diversity that exists at HKS was fundamentally different from what I had experienced,” she reflects. “I had never met so many people from different countries and different socioeconomic levels before. I had to reframe what I defined as diversity.”

Over time, Yap began to embrace this broader perspective and leaned into the discomfort of being different, finding strength in what made her unique. She came to see her background as an opportunity, not only to learn but to influence. Quietly, she explains, “changing the hearts and minds” of her peers became her personal mission.

One of the most meaningful ways she pursued that mission was through the Urban-Rural Leadership Trek, sponsored by the Taubman Center for State and Local Government. As one of three student organizers, Yap helped lead 24 HKS students through Arizona and Nevada, introducing them to the communities, advisors, and grassroots networks that had shaped her.

“I think one of the most fulfilling things was not only to bring people home but for them to then meet my mentors and those who brought me into the organizing space and realize that there are entire organizations made of up people from all kinds of backgrounds and take inspiration from the bravery that they demonstrate every day,” she says.

Turning Ideas into Action

The Urban-Rural Leadership Trek was just one example of how HKS supported Yap during her time as a student. “If you have an idea,” she says, “there is a center, a professor, a peer — someone — who will be willing to support your idea.”

For Yap, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation became a crucial part of that support system. The Center funded her Policy Analysis Exercise with the Southern Poverty Law Center, where she examined freedom of assembly in the American South. It also backed a personal passion project that grew out of a foundational course in policy design and delivery. “We were tasked to come up with a policy solution for a problem we noticed,” Yap says. “Having worked as a nursing assistant in undergrad, I did mine on nurses in Nevada… and long story short, we created a piece of legislation to protect them.”

With support from the Ash Center, Yap traveled back to Nevada to interview nurses whose insights shaped the bill. The Center also provided the resources she needed to present her proposal to a legislative committee. “What I’ve gained most — and learned the most about the institution that I wasn’t expecting — was all the ways it would support what I care about.”

Yap’s unwavering dedication to strengthening democratic practice and community engagement across all the communities she’s involved in earned her the Ash Center’s Martha H. Mauzy Award this spring.

Investing in Las Vegas with a Fresh Perspective

Now that her time at HKS has come to a close, Yap remains focused on Las Vegas. She hopes to join an organization committed to reinvesting in her community through creating pathways for greater economic opportunity and upward mobility. She envisions working for a labor union, a workers’ center, or in state or local government focused on workforce development — roles that reflect her commitment to service and systems-level change. “I think HKS has really reinforced that I am going back home to be in service of my community,” she affirms, “but this time it will be with the perspective that HKS has given me.”