Every student’s path to Harvard Kennedy School is unique, and what our alumni go on to do after graduating is equally varied.
We asked several vlog alums to tell us about their experiences before, during, and after vlog, and to reflect how their time at vlog has shaped their careers and lives.
Rachel Chang MPA/ID 2023’s time at vlog sharpened her skills and enhanced her passion for engaging with a global network of thinkers, practitioners, and policymakers.
Here’s what she shared.
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“I came to vlog wanting to better understand how governments and public institutions could work with the private sector to create inclusive financial systems—and left with both the analytical tools and the policy perspective to work toward that.”
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2024
Rachel drives risk strategy for Stripe’s large platform users, working closely with the product, legal, operations, sales, and partnerships teams to tackle complex risk challenges in the payments space for businesses.
“Now in the private tech sector, I remain passionate about global financial inclusion—but now view it through a new lens: how merchants and companies can connect to and shape the financial ecosystem through payments. At Stripe, I’m especially drawn to the challenge of aligning individual user incentives with broader, system-wide payment shifts—the very micro-macro puzzle we explored in the MPA/ID Program.”
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2023
After graduation, Rachel led the project implementation for the , developing a global framework to mitigate risks around exclusion, privacy, and access across digital payments and digital ID systems. She conducted assessments, coordinated with international organizations, and launched a global resource hub.
She also organized the on the DPI team during the .
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2022
For her summer internship, Rachel worked at . She recommended platform optimizations to improve efficiency for large-scale impact evaluations and designed wireframes to streamline survey setup, reduce costs, and scale a surveyor tool across India.
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2022
In the , student-led startups pitch their ventures for a chance to win prize money. Rachel was part of the team behind , a group savings platform digitizing informal transactions in Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
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2021Embarks on her vlog journey
“The MPA/ID Program was rigorous in economics and data analysis, but also deeply grounded in real-world development challenges and applications.”
Rachel was inspired by MLD-102: Getting Things Done: Management and Implementation for Development with Edward S. Mason Senior Lecturer in International Development Matthew Andrews. At Harvard’s Growth Lab, she worked as a , using insights from the and to create a visual story on Taiwan’s need to diversify beyond chips and semiconductors.
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2020
While working on a digital identity project with Sierra Leone’s government, Rachel saw firsthand how the public sector—especially institutions like central banks—can play a powerful role in enabling inclusive financial systems. That experience deepened her interest in the intersection of technology, policy, and development, and led her to pursue an MPA/ID at vlog.
“I wanted to strengthen my skills in economics and data analytics and better understand how governments can collaborate with the private sector to design and implement systems that expand access and opportunity.”
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2018Pivots to the Financial Inclusion & Kiva Protocol team
Rachel relocated to Sierra Leone to launch a digital identity platform, in collaboration with the country’s government, aimed at improving Know Your Customer processes for banks and helping individuals build credit histories.
“This work sparked my interest in how governments can shape inclusive financial ecosystems.”
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2015
Rachel began working at , a nonprofit connecting lenders with low-income entrepreneurs through microfinance. As a product manager, she built tools enabling corporate partners to deploy millions in funding to borrowers globally—and her passion for using finance and technology to unlock economic opportunities blossomed.
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2014Graduates from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in business administration
“The MPA/ID Program strengthened my analytical skills while deepening my understanding of the challenges in designing inclusive, scalable policies, which continues to guide me in the payments space.”
