Six majors, eight internships and 23 jobs colored the undergraduate journey of Leila Dawson, who ultimately graduated from the University of Maryland with a double degree in economics and international relations in 2020.
She was one of only three students in her class offered a job by Deloitte, one of the world’s largest consulting firms, where she worked advising government agencies, global nonprofits and biopharmaceutical companies on healthcare.
Now, she pursues a dual graduate degree in public policy from Harvard and in business administration from Stanford, which this June named her a Knight-Hennessy Scholar – inducting her into the prestigious, multidisciplinary leadership fellowship that funds her Stanford studies.
“My main goal is just to think in an interdisciplinary way,” said Dawson, who attributes that perspective to her unrelenting curiosity and to her experience here in Greenbelt and the DMV as a whole.
Greenbelt Years
“Greenbelt, I think, is one of the most magical cities in the universe. It holds such a special place in my heart,” said Dawson, who lived just a few miles away in Lanham but attended Greenbelt Elementary and took part in extracurricular activities through the Recreation Center, such as Camp Pine Tree.
Later, she went to Eleanor Roosevelt High School through Prince George’s County Public Schools’ science and technology magnet program for students from all over the county.
“It was just so diverse across so many dimensions: race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, personality, ability,” said Dawson. “That was really formative to me as a person, and I think it allowed me to kind of see disparities across geography, race, income, all these different pillars.”
While at Roosevelt, Dawson played varsity softball all four years, and focused on clubs, friends and work. But as graduation neared, she had no idea what she wanted to study in college.
University Years
“I think it’s kind of insane to ask a 17-year-old to pick what they want to do for the rest of their life,” said Dawson, but she eventually settled on studying psychology at the University of Maryland, a school she chose because of its affordability and its proximity to Greenbelt.
Staying nearby meant she could continue one of her high school jobs helping at the Recreation Center, through which she coached sports, orchestrated other after-school activities and was a camp counselor at Camp Pine Tree.
“It was cool to then be working alongside people that I called a counselor way back when,” she said.
That work bled into her studies. For her first year of college, Dawson was dedicated to understanding how to improve educational outcomes through extracurricular activities. That interest prompted her to switch majors for the first time, from psychology to education.
This would become a pattern.
“Then I realized, in order to actually have an impact on the education system at scale, I need to work in policy,” said Dawson, who did several internships on Capitol Hill. “Then I realized the public sector, while amazing, has so much red tape, and the private sector is a really cool angle to create social impact as well,” she added. That interest led to internships with two consulting firms, and to an opportunity to assemble and run her own house painting company, which she called the most important job she had while in college.
After all was said and done, she ended up pursuing a double degree in economics ‒ to learn quantitative skills ‒ and in international relations.
“I felt like every time I switched my major, I got closer and closer to what I wanted, but I also was able to connect dots along the way that maybe I wouldn’t have if I started with economics and international relations as my major,” Dawson said.
Career Start
As she finished her studies, she sought to become a consultant ‒ a career where every day is different, according to Dawson, and that lets you see business from a “bird’s eye view.”
She didn’t stop exploring new fields when she started her career with Deloitte. She began her work in healthcare across the private and public sectors as the coronavirus pandemic was in full swing.
She observed the pandemic’s impacts on residents of Prince George’s County, where rates of infection were especially high. Seeing hospital beds fill up in her hometown of Lanham inspired her to take action outside of her work, providing local hospice care and supporting the county’s health department.
“I didn’t want to lose myself in the corporate world, I wanted to make sure I understand the community I live in,” Dawson said.
Graduate School
From her years working at Deloitte, she wanted to become an even better leader in healthcare and bridge the gap between policy and business. That set her on her latest journey as a graduate student of Harvard and Stanford.
This summer, she is helping Bluebird Kids Health, a budding pediatric clinic, set up a location in Jacksonville and a Broward County suburb in Florida.
Future Plans
In the future, she hopes to stay in the healthcare field and continue to explore other fields that intersect. She plans to eventually become an entrepreneur and be a part of “all things start-up.”
Dawson pointed to her parents, several professors and internship coaches and also her Greenbelt teachers and counselors as mentors. “I really wouldn’t be who I am without all these amazing people who poured themselves into me,” she said. “Now, I hope to pour back into my community.”
Will Hammann is a student at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism interning at the Greenbelt News Review.
