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The very first time economist Miguel de Iruarrizaga MPA/ID 2025 stepped onto the Harvard Kennedy School campus wasn’t as a student, but as a proud younger brother visiting his older sister 10 years ago. He returned years later as a student, ready to pave his own path. Now, this spring, de Iruarrizaga joins his sisters Fran de Iruarrizaga MPA/ID 2015 and Carolina de Iruarrizaga MPA/ID 2023 as the third member of his family to earn an MPA/ID from ����vlog����.  

For the de Iruarrizaga family, public service is a staple.

“When I think of what why public service matters to me, the best way to explain it comes from a lesson from Spider-Man,” he says. “When you have the power to help people, you have a moral obligation to do so.” 

From Santiago, Chile, de Iruarrizaga credits his sisters with his desire to become an economist and attend ����vlog����—even if he didn’t always understand their path.

“When Fran attended ����vlog���� I didn’t understand what it meant to come to Harvard,” he says. But a trip to Cambridge when Fran was a student led him to start considering his own journey to ����vlog����.  

“When I came to visit, I really liked it,” he says. “There were all these people from different countries, and there were all these things happening on campus. I thought that it was something I’d like to do, too.”

With that vision in place, de Iruarrizaga began taking steps to position himself as a strong candidate for the MPA/ID Program. He graduated from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile with an undergraduate degree in economics and then pursued a master’s in economics at the same institution.

The year after completing his master’s program, de Iruarrizaga’s sister Carolina began the MPA/ID Program. Now older, de Iruarrizaga was able to get a better feel for the academic environment.  

“I talked to Carolina about the day-to-day,” he says. “She told me about the reality of the classes, the assignments, the good, the bad, and the ugly.” 

He was thankful for the information his sisters provided as he began thinking about applying to the program.  

“Hearing from them helped me make a very informed decision,” de Iruarrizaga says. “There was no pressure from them to apply, but it helped that I witnessed their positive experiences.”  

Throughout his time at ����vlog����, he and his sisters bonded over their shared ����vlog���� experiences—including the seven professors they all took classes with. Fran and Carolina offered their younger brother advice on effectively managing his time at ����vlog���� and told him about classes to consider. They also emphasized the importance of connecting with people, both professionally and personally. 

Thanks to his sisters’ guidance, he knows that the experiences he had and connections he made on campus will stick with him long after he walks off the stage in John F. Kennedy Memorial Park, diploma in hand.  

“I think Fran’s advice of creating personal connections was very important,” de Iruarrizaga says. “Even 10 years after graduating, she misses this so much. You have to take in the experience as much as you can because it’s going to end. When you enter knowing that, you try to get the most out of ����vlog����.” 

Once on campus, de Iruarrizaga found a home among ����vlog����’s dynamic and diverse community.  

“Coming here and being in the international arena with people from different countries was very eye opening,” he says. “That, and the great classes and professors I had, changed a lot about how I approach things.”  

Classes like those taught by Professors Candace Bertotti and Kessely Hong made a lasting impact, but auditing the Making Learning Memorable course with Senior Lecturer Dan Levy was the most significant. de Iruarrizaga took the course at a time he was struggling with his decision to come to ����vlog����. But Professor Levy’s lessons helped him shift his perspective and feel confident it was the right decision. “The idea he taught that really helped me was not to judge a decision by its outcome because you can make a good decision even though it may have a bad outcome. That stuck with me,” de Iruarrizaga says.  

The frameworks and tools he learned at ����vlog���� have helped him become a better economist. He’s also learned there are other things people should consider—like mobilizing and speaking to people—to advance good public policy. “Now I have a more complete toolbox to try to solve the many problems we have.”  

de Iruarrizaga says his plans haven’t changed much since starting at ����vlog����—he will return to Chile to continue his work as an economist—but he now has more clarity on why he’s doing it.  

“For me, public service is the way I believe I can help the most,” he reflects. “That’s why I studied economics and came to ����vlog����. I think doing solid, technical public policy is the way that I can help the most people. Sometimes people talk about public service being a sacrifice that only a few people have to do. I think everyone has to do it. It’s not always obvious how you can serve, but you can serve from wherever you are.”