Though many come into college unsure of what exactly they want to do, Jenna Boccher (C ’25), a former Daily Pennsylvanian staffer, has faced no such problems. Sitting across from me in the yard outside Carriage House, she tells me she always knew she wanted to dedicate her college years to studying policy. “I was a huge freak when I was a kid,” she says with a laugh. “I would have debates with my parents over dinner all the time. … I just loved politics.” But politics can be a hard business to love—like many hoping to work in the government after graduation, Jenna’s career plans were derailed by the devastation wrought by Donald Trump on the federal workforce. Despite this upheaval, her commitment to building community and uplifting others has continued to guide her in both her personal and professional lives.
It’s a warm Thursday evening when I meet Jenna. Before our interview can begin, she makes me swear an oath: “You have to quote me in the article saying I’m awesome and chill.” It wouldn’t be a lie. Leaning back in one of the courtyard’s rickety metal chairs, Jenna seems just as comfortable in an interview as she is guiding first years through the woods as a PennQuest leader or tutoring African immigrant students in West Philadelphia through the Technology and Inquiry into a Multicultural Bilingual Academic Setting program. But Jenna’s calm exterior conceals a deep passion for justice, a commitment that comes out as we speak about her time studying international relations. She remarks that she decided to study IR because political science always felt stifling—IR gave her the room she needed to explore the questions she cared about most, particularly those surrounding human rights.
When I ask Jenna what drew her to the subject initially, her answer makes it seem obvious: “It’s hard to make an argument for why not to study human rights!” Her emphasis on community is more than just empty rhetoric—the value Jenna places on being there for others has led her to dedicate much of her time to service work.
Jenna’s commitment to inciting real change in the world eventually led her to intern at the Department of State. Dealing with practical foreign policy work made a deep impression on her. “Coming in, I really hated the State Department,” she admits. “But I met some of the most amazing people in the world there, trying to do good in the world. … It really redeemed my faith in the federal government.” With government experience under her belt, Jenna hoped to work at the United States Agency for International Development after graduation. “I don’t really know what happened to them,” she jokes. USAID’s merger into the State Department and subsequent gutting by the Trump administration has left millions in the developing world without vital food and medical aid and has put thousands of former government employees out of work.
Her backup plan, working for a big nongovernmental organization, was similarly shattered by Trump’s spending cuts. With the Department of Government Efficiency slashing government contracts at will and putting federal grants in jeopardy, large NGOs have been forced to reallocate their budgets and considerably shrink their staff. In today’s D.C., new graduates vying for a dwindling pool of job openings aren’t just competing with each other—they’re competing against former staffers with years of experience in government or NGO work who have just been cut loose into the job market.
Jenna admits to being frustrated about how, after years of preparation, three months of Republican governance have torn her and her friends’ career plans to shreds. “It’s hard. I don’t know what to say to myself most days,” she says. “It feels like I put in four years of working hard to try and get here, and coming to Penn, and paying the price of Penn … just to get fucked.”
But sitting idly by as the world collapsed around her didn’t sit right with Jenna. “I needed to do something,” she tells me with conviction. “I needed to experience something new, then come back and try to make things better.”
Taking the skills she’s learned from mentoring and tutoring children in West Philadelphia, Jenna has a new plan in mind: working to promote literacy in the Dominican Republic with the Peace Corps. A Latin American and Latinx studies minor who wrote her thesis on grassroots organizing in Chile and Colombia, she isn’t out of her element doing service work in Latin America. Still, she admits that this certainly wasn’t what she envisioned her future looking like post–graduation.
The Peace Corps itself is by no means safe from Trump’s agenda. Volunteers engaged in HIV prevention work, for example, are in a state of panic following Congress’s failure to reauthorize the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Additionally, with DOGE placing the majority of AmeriCorps staff on leave, many in the Peace Corps are bracing for a similarly sized impact to the nation’s foreign volunteer program. Thinking about what might happen to the nation’s remaining foreign service programs is a source of anxiety for Jenna. “It fills me with fear every day,” she confesses. But despite the ongoing firestorm in the federal government, Jenna is glad she’s able to contribute to building a better world as best she can.
For Jenna, joining the Peace Corps isn’t an attempt to outrun the domestic turmoil Trump has brought about. With international tensions continuing to escalate and the Peace Corps itself being in such a precarious position, such an endeavor would be futile. Instead, serving in the Dominican Republic will allow her to live authentically, applying herself to building community and improving people’s lives through service. It’s a line of work she hopes young people continue to strive for, even with the current tumult in Washington. Jenna opines on the fact that many who were formerly interested in political science have pivoted to consulting as government jobs go up in smoke: “That’s great, go get that bag, but … it’s draining more good people from this field. … It’s scary to think about who would be left once all these good people leave.” Jenna certainly won’t be leaving anytime soon.
Though her demeanor is calm and cool, Jenna admits that she’s “angry every day, still.” But that anger hasn’t led her to give up on the values she holds close to her heart. “I really think politics is a pendulum,” Jenna says. “America is a really scary place right now, but I think things have to get better.” While it won’t be an easy process, she believes that young people taking action really can make a difference. “I’m not sure the government can be fixed, from the inside at least,” she says.
The core principle of Jenna’s politics is the same as that of the rest of her life: community. Whether organizing grassroots resistance to policies that victimize the most vulnerable among us or simply speaking to those around you about politics, she exemplifies how the true root of all politics is the hearts and minds of ordinary people. Politics happens all around us, and action at every level, from the halls of Congress to the streets of West Philadelphia, is vital in changing our nation—and our world—for the better. Though the federal government may seem like it’s on the ropes today, Jenna hasn’t given up hope in building a more just America. “The day that the hiring freeze gets lifted,” she vows, “USAJOBS will be seeing my name—repeatedly!”
