Not many MPPs plan to attend Max Bell years in advance. But long before arriving for orientation week, Anna Cipolla knew she'd be here. In 2019, while completing her Honours Political Science degree at Concordia University, she first learned about the newly created program. Even then, it stood out as a natural next step for someone interested in government and policymaking. “I remember thinking, when it’s my time, this is the program for me,” she says.
A few years later, that moment arrived. Born and raised in Montreal, Cipolla came to Max Bell after gaining hands-on experience in government. She spent two years working as a junior social policy analyst on the Gender-Based Analysis team at Indigenous Services Canada, where she helped examine how federal policies affect diverse populations and communities. The role gave her early exposure to the realities of policymaking inside government.
That experience also revealed a gap between theory and practice. “My undergraduate degree gave me a really good theoretical foundation in terms of public policy and political science and how government works in theory,” she says. “But not really in practice and on paper.”
Working in government showed her how important practical policy skills are for turning ideas into real decisions. “I was finding that I was lacking those practical policy skills that can actually allow you to do analysis and actually make meaningful change,” she explains. That realization led her to the MPP program at Max Bell. For Cipolla, the program offers the balance she had been looking for between theory and hands-on policy training. “We do learn a lot of theory about public policy,” she says. “But more so the practical side of things.”
In particular, she has focused on building professional skills used every day in government and policy organizations. “Learning those policy skills like research, analysis, writing, especially writing key policy documents like briefing notes, memoranda to cabinet, learning how to craft your writing for decision making,” she says. “Those are all things that I didn’t get in my undergraduate degree or even on the job as a junior.”
Another key part of the Max Bell experience, Cipolla says, is learning from faculty who have worked directly in the policy world. Many professors in the program are practitioners with experience in government or the private sector. “They have really good experience in the federal government and the private sector and can offer those firsthand insights,” she says. “I think that’s just unique to the program.”
The program has also pushed Cipolla to explore areas of policy she did not initially expect to enjoy. Last semester, she took two courses she thought might be her most difficult: microeconomics and Canada United States relations. Instead, they became two of her favorite classes. “I thought they would be my worst classes just because they’re things that I normally wouldn’t gravitate to,” she says. “But they actually turned out to be two of my favorite classes.”
The courses helped her see how economic forces and international relationships shape nearly every dimension of Canadian public policy. “They really showed me how economics and Canada United States relations or international relations more broadly touch every aspect of Canadian public policy,” she explains.
They also gave her the opportunity to apply her background in social policy analysis in new ways. “It allowed me to bring my social policy analysis lens into more economics and international relations policy and add that holistic element to my policy toolkit that I wasn’t expecting,” she says.
Cipolla’s path to graduate school has not always felt straightforward. As the first person in her family to attend university and work in government, she has often had to navigate unfamiliar institutions on her own. At times, that meant grappling with doubt about whether she truly belonged. “So this might sound cheesy, but believe in yourself and know that you belong in places like this,” she says. “For myself, I’m the first person in my family to go to university and to work in a government position. I’ve had to navigate these really complex and often intimidating systems by myself.”
Despite those challenges, she says confidence and persistence made the difference. “Often feeling like I shouldn’t be here or there are people more qualified than me or smarter than me or who have more connections than me,” she says. “Just believing in myself and trying hard and having that self confidence brought me a lot further.” That belief, she says, is what ultimately brought her to the Max Bell School. “It’s actually the reason why I’m here today.”
