Story #28: Katie Koga
Katie Koga’s journey with public service began long before she stepped foot on Harvard's campus, but it was through PBHA that her passion truly flourished. Koga helped to launch the Cambridge after-school program, dedicating four years to its growth and eventually stepping into a director role. She also spent three summers at the Summer Urban Program (SUP), where she served as support for two summers before acting as senior counselor for the RISE program. In 2010, she led PBHA as president.
For Koga, PBHA wasn't just an extracurricular activity—“it became a community for me that aligned with my values, with my vision for the world and made it seem possible that this work is something that you can do as part of your life and career.” One of her most vivid memories from PBHA involves organizing a cabinet retreat as programming chair. Despite challenges like rainstorms and unexpected illnesses, the experience epitomized what PBHA meant to her. She recalls, "There's always a bit of chaos and disaster when working through unexpected challenges, but also at the end of the day, it really brought people together. We had this opportunity to bond as a community."
After graduating, Koga felt both the weight of leaving behind a close-knit community and the confidence to pursue a career dedicated to social impact. She reflects, “I did leave with a lot of both humility and confidence which is I think the combination that PBHA instills.” Koga’s post-graduation path was shaped by her PBHA experiences. She completed several AmeriCorps fellowships, worked in Boston public schools, and did nonprofit consulting. Her passion for criminal justice reform, nurtured during her time at PBHA, led her to pursue prison education work through a fellowship she secured through PBHA alumni connections.
Afterwards, Koga decided to attend business school. Her goal was to learn how to leverage systems of power for the purpose of criminal justice reform. She notes, "I remained one of the maybe 10 people in my class of over 300 that stayed in public service." Today, Koga serves as the COO of The Bail Project, a nonprofit that provides bail assistance to people who are incarcerated pretrial and also supports them to connect back to their families.
Koga attributes much of her success and conviction in her career path to the encouragement and experiences she gained through PBHA. Her advice to current and prospective PBHA volunteers is to “take advantage of the incredible breadth of experiences that is offered at PBHA from direct service to legal advocacy.” She emphasizes the importance of humility, recognizing one’s privilege as a Harvard student, and soaking up the wisdom of the incredible mentors and community members involved with PBHA.
For Katie Koga, PBHA was more than just a college activity—it was a transformative experience that shaped her values, career, and commitment to social justice and public service. As she puts it, “PBHA was my life… I lived and breathed it. Upon leaving, I felt much more prepared to do this work and also recognized how much more I had to learn."
