Yasmine Agdali

I wanted to do psychology, then business. But right before college, on a whim, I said “hey, I’m just going to apply to intern at the Manhattan Borough President's office, just for fun, why not?” And it turns out, working in constituent services was really interesting. 

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During my internship, there was an elderly woman who called. She didn’t have running water or a working fridge for months, and wasn’t eating properly. She didn’t speak much English, and I didn’t speak any Korean, but I stayed on the line with her for at least 20 minutes. I could tell she needed someone to talk to her. She eventually got what she needed, and I was so proud to have helped. And I was like, okay, maybe this is the path I need to be on. While I was debating what to study, I had that story in my thoughts the whole time. 

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Later, while I was interning in a City Council office in New York City, a Moroccan man came in who only spoke Arabic, specifically the Moroccan dialect. It's such a hard dialect that even the Arabic-speaking lawyer couldn't fully understand him. I’m Moroccan too, and for three days, we worked together doing hoops and backflips to help him recover missing stimulus and unemployment money, when he wasn’t able to get in contact with his accountant. He needed help starting the process again and monitoring it through the correct channels. 

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On the third day, we finally cracked it. He said, “thank you so much, I wouldn't have known what to do.” Both moments changed everything for me. They reminded me why representation matters at every level of government. You can't help a community unless you know the community.

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When I took a Constitutional Law class, I fell in love. It all clicked. Today I'm planning a career in international development focused on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

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Public service to me means the greater good.  It might not serve you, and that's okay. That's the whole purpose of public service. You serve the public.

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