Cris Ramón ’06

Macalester is incredible at getting Fulbrights—an opportunity for students to learn about other countries and become a de facto diplomat.

Cris Ramón ’06

I did my first two years of college at Northwestern and transferred to Mac because I was looking for an environment of more intellectual curiosity. I also found great mentoring. I loved sociology, but when you are interested in public policy or international relations, the path from your ideological hopes to a specific job is much less clear than it is for programs like medicine or law. Macalester helped me figure out how to make a path for myself.

For a sociology class, I did a project on how court cases impacted the ability of undocumented immigrants to join labor unions, which had potential for an international focus I hadn’t explored. With that as a starting point, Mac helped me get a Fulbright in Madrid to study immigration policy. My next steps were to work as a paralegal, then to get an MA at the Elliott School of International Affairs focusing on European immigration policy. Eventually I landed a job with the Bipartisan Policy Center. I had to convince them to hire an American to do European-focused work, in the same way that I later had to work to convince people that I could parlay my international expertise into U.S. policy work.

At Unidos U.S., I spent several years overseeing policy research and analysis to inform advocacy on behalf of Latinos in the United States. I have had to evolve into a person who understands that activism is not the same as policy work and that iterations make change. I have learned that it takes a hard-edged sense of pragmatism to expand the list of organizations you’d be willing to work for, to play the insider game, and to create public policy that maintains ethics. 

My advice to students would be to take advantage of all the resources Mac offers. Use the Career Exploration office for help with resumes and cover letters. Intern and network as much as possible with people who could eventually hire you, instead of only networking with peers. I spent one summer doing thirty or forty informational interviews, just to get my name out there, and met someone who offered me a job a year later. Mac alums might become your first boss or your next colleague, and you can connect with them even years after graduation.

Last updated: October 2025