She Transferred to Georgetown To Study Public Policy and Help Small Businesses Thrive

Asha Gudipaty (C'27) grew up fascinated by history, economics and the political process.

In high school, she competed on the debate team and kept up with current events and politics, which nurtured her academic interests. She also volunteered at the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, which shaped how she saw the law as a means to pursue justice.

In high school, Gudipaty participated in Texas Girls State, a weeklong program for students that simulates the political process.

Gudipaty became more interested in a career in public service when she attended Texas Girls State, a weeklong camp for high school girls that simulates the political process. She also advocated for the expansion of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, for homebound elderly citizens and contacted her state senator, who later endorsed a related bill.

Gudipaty's experience inside and outside of the classroom fueled her drive to engage with more community causes. Public policy, she thought, would be the perfect way to meld all of her varied interests in college and her career.

She was particularly interested in economic policy and how it can be used to protect human rights and foster economic growth through entrepreneurship. She had grown up watching her parents develop their small business, a private medical practice where her mother serves as an obstetrician. Gudipaty wanted to learn more about how policy can empower small businesses to thrive.

"I definitely wanted to do something that was more applied, and I felt like policy was that," she said. "It gets at what people are frustrated about and what we see and would like to dissect further in the news. Doing public policy in DC was kind of the dream for me."

Georgetown was at the top of her list of colleges to pursue her dream. She was drawn to the university's liberal arts education and emphasis on service to others.

Gudipaty's dream, however, was deferred when she was waitlisted at Georgetown.

She enrolled at the University of Michigan in the fall of 2023, but Georgetown was always at the back of her mind.

Public Policy For Business

Gudipaty enrolled in Georgetown in January 2025.

Gudipaty discovered Georgetown's Joint Program in Public Policysoon after it was announcedin 2023.

A partnership between the College of Arts & Sciences and McCourt School of Public Policy, the program offers undergraduate students a policy-centric and interdisciplinary curriculum that's grounded in the liberal arts and based on Georgetown's Capitol Campus in downtown Washington, DC.

During her sophomore year at Michigan, Gudipaty spent her fall semester at Georgetown as a visiting student, which reaffirmed her ultimate goal to study there. She knew the public policy program checked all of her boxes: interdisciplinary learning with experiential learning opportunities in DC.

After applying to transfer to Georgetown, Gudipaty enrolled as a full-time student in January 2025.

This semester on the Capitol Campus, Gudipaty is taking three public policy courses that explore international development, statistics and data analytics. Gudipaty has loved getting a taste of these topics in her coursework, particularly as she hopes to pursue law school and a career in economic regulatory and financial policy.

"Stats has such an interesting application to policy in terms of figuring out what causes what and how policymakers are supposed to think about different issues. What I love about it is that I'm getting good legal practice for thinking about how to reason my way through certain conclusions," she said. "But international development tickles my fancy a little bit. It's just so fun and exciting to see differences and similarities between countries and what that means."

During her semester as a visiting student, Gudipaty interned with a member of the House of Representatives. Now, as a Georgetown student, she's excited to pursue internships in DC to explore her interest in economic policy law. She's especially eager to take the internship seminar or policy lab, a core requirement in the public policy program. These experiential coursesconnect students to government and nongovernmental agencies to see public policy in action.

Gudipaty serves a senator for the Class of 2027 in the Georgetown University Student Association.

Outside of the classroom, Gudipaty has discovered new extracurricular activities at Georgetown in her first year as a Hoya, including a debate club, the Philonomosian Society.

Gudipaty was also elected as a senator for the Class of 2027 in the Georgetown University Student Association. As a senator, she hopes to shape student life on the Capitol Campus and improve the student experience for transfer students like herself.

Gudipaty is living her dream to be at Georgetown studying public policy in DC. Now, she's focused on her next milestone to graduate with the necessary skills to succeed in law school and jumpstart her career in public policy.

"I'm interested in the laws around [small business] and how that's made easier or more difficult and how I can use whatever skills I have to preserve that for other families and communities," she said. "I'm interested in allowing people to live the life that they want."