Alumna Dara Drake ’23 has been named as a 2025 Knight-Hennessy Scholar, the first from Syracuse University.
Knight-Hennessy Scholars is a multidisciplinary, multicultural graduate scholarship program at Stanford University. Each Knight-Hennessy scholar receives up to three years of financial support to pursue graduate studies at Stanford while engaging in experiences that prepare them to be visionary, courageous and collaborative leaders who address complex challenges facing the world.
“Our world has never been in greater need of leaders to address a wide range of challenges,” says John L. Hennessy, Stanford University president emeritus and the Shriram Family Director of Knight-Hennessy Scholars. “Our scholars are ready to think boldly, act wisely and humbly, and lead with purpose, helping build a better future for all of us.”
Drake, from Highland Park, Illinois, earned a bachelor’s degree in policy studies from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences in 2023. At Stanford, she will enroll in a dual master’s degree program in policy, organization and leadership studies in the Graduate School of Education and public policy in the School of Humanities and Sciences.
She is passionate about addressing inequities that lie at the intersection of education, technology and government. She co-founded Skills Win!, which brings “skills coaches” to schools and nonprofits across New York state. Her research on student voice and empowerment has been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented to global audiences, including twice at the United Nations.
Drake joined KPMG after graduating from Syracuse and works as an education strategy consultant and national education operations lead. In that role, she is engaged to address complex challenges and answer difficult questions that schools struggle to resolve. “I love being in schools and talking to teachers and students, deans and principals,” she says.
As the national operations lead, Drake sets the processes and policies for the KPMG education team. She oversees research and thought leadership on issues from trends in education to the role of AI in education. Her team includes almost 700 people who serve 300 clients around the country.
At Stanford, Drake is seeking more formal training in leadership and to build her problem-solving skills through different perspectives. She worked with the University’s Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA) to prepare her application and for her interviews. “Dara’s clear goals and incredible record of leadership make her a wonderful fit for the Knight-Hennessy Scholarship,” says Jolynn Parker, director of CFSA. “It was a joy to work with her on this application, and we can’t wait to see what she’ll do with this opportunity.”
“It is an honor to be the first Syracuse student to receive this scholarship. I hope that I am the first of many more,” Drake says.
Her first year at Stanford, in policy organization and leadership studies, will help her build leadership skills. Most of the year will be spent in a field study in a school. Her second year, in public policy, will help her build her quantitative skills.
“The first year I’ll be thinking about creating, navigating and scaling effective changes in schools,” she says. “In the second year, I can think about the feasibility of that change and evaluate whether policies are working in the schools or, if they’re not, what about them needs to change.”
Drake says she is also looking forward to engaging with the Knight-Hennessy Scholar community. “I will have access to this really amazing group of people. They’re all super passionate about a specific problem,” she says.
Drake says that, in the field of education, problems are often very interconnected. “Schools are a place where almost all of the problems that we deal with as a society come together. If you don’t address them as a package deal, students are left behind,” she says. “I’m really excited to have this community and to get to learn how to better pitch my ideas.”
“I’ve talked to some of the scholars who have gone on and graduated, and they all cite this program as a launch pad,” she says. “Many of them say they changed over the course of their program because of the people they were introduced to, the way their thoughts were challenged and the resources and support that they accessed.”
At Syracuse, Drake was a University Scholar, a Maxwell | Arts and Sciences Scholar, and a Remembrance Scholar. She worked on solving problems both on campus and in the community.
“Syracuse was so instrumental and gave me all the experiences that I needed to match what I was learning in the classroom,” Drake says. “I was really lucky to have several professors and Syracuse staff that were on my team.”
Mentors such as Bill Coplin, professor of public policy in the Maxwell School, talked Drake through problems that she wanted to solve. “There were all kinds of experiences that I had as an undergraduate that enabled me to be successful in my job and prepared me to join a community like Knight-Hennessy,” she says.
In the first few weeks of her freshman year, a professor gave Drake advice she says she still holds in her heart. She told her, “Within measure, say yes to everything, even the things no one else wants to do.”
Drake’s long-term goal is to be a leader in education through a position at a government agency. And she will still follow that advice.
