As soon as Stephanie Granobles ’27 was accepted as a Posse Scholar her senior year of high school, she set her eyes on the Jeff Ubben Posse Fellowship, a highly selective fellowship that pairs five Posse Scholars each summer with an industry leader.
The late U.S. Congressman John Lewis, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, and the CEOs of Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Pfizer have been notable hosts since the fellowship was established nine years ago.
“Posse’s vision for the program is that these students are going to be future industry leaders,” says Granobles, a public policy analysis (PPA) major. “Putting them in rooms where they see leadership in action is the best way to get that learning opportunity.”
In her application, Granobles indicated a preference to be paired with a leader in the nonprofit or government sector. After receiving the award, which includes a $10,000 prize, she shadowed Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of the Hispanic Federation, and worked for the nonprofit for seven weeks.
For the first two weeks of the program, Granobles worked remotely on the organization’s policy team from her hometown of Chicago. She wrote a policy brief for The Latinidad Curriculum—New York City’s first Latino history curriculum for K-12 schools—looking at how lessons from the city’s Black Studies curriculum could inform this new curriculum.
She also attended events in her hometown that brought many nonprofits together.
“The Hispanic Federation, as a nonprofit membership organization, does a lot of capacity-building events for other nonprofits that have less in-house capabilities, that are very centered in serving Latiné communities,” says Granobles.
She moved to New York City for the remainder of the program to serve on the education team at the Hispanic Federation’s headquarters along with continuing with the policy team. There, she participated in the Hispanic Federation’s annual Hispanic education summit, which brought together students, parents and educators to work on The Latinidad Curriculum. She also wrote testimony for a state bill to codify New York City’s sanctuary school policy.
While shadowing Miranda in New York, Granobles sat in on his meetings and learned directly from him.
“Every time he would finish a call,” she says, “he would turn to me and explain terms that I might not have known, explain his approach to going at things a certain way.”
The experience reaffirmed Granobles’ belief in the value of nonprofits and her desire to work in the sector professionally.
“Frankie was very intentional about describing the need for nonprofits, and the Hispanic Federation taught me that nonprofits truly serve as a bridge to support communities that government often fails to reach,” she says. “I feel reinvigorated and really clear in my mission.”
Back on campus this semester, Granobles is continuing to pursue and appreciate her public policy analysis major with a sociology focus.
“PPA and sociology have brought my two interests together—how government policy can shape our perceptions, our relationships, the ways we participate in society,” she says.
Granobles is conducting research this year on affordable housing in the neighboring city of Pomona, as well as interning at an organization in Pomona called Gente Organizada. Spending time in the predominantly Latino city has been a priority for her.
“Immersing myself in the communities around us is something that I have felt very fulfilled by,” she says. “Urban policy is really interesting to me, but ultimately, making sure that I’m a tool for and trusted by the community that I serve is a first principle.”