Back to the Future

When she began her Master of Public Administration (MPA) program, Christin Santiago suffered a bad case of imposter syndrome on the first day of classes.

“I remember sitting down and texting my wife: ‘I don’t know where all the grown-ups are, I don’t know where I’m supposed to go, and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. And I think maybe this was a mistake,’” Santiago recounts.

Part of her nervousness was that she hadn’t been in a classroom since completing her undergraduate degree in 1999. Another reason was that all the other students were basically the same age as her own children. “There were kids everywhere,” she laughs.

But one kind student came over, asked if she needed help, and showed her where her classroom was. And when Santiago walked in and saw the other students looking just as baffled, she realized it was the first day of class for everyone. “In that moment it was: I’m good, I’m home,” she says.

Santiago is the interim chief clinical officer at the Canton, Massachusetts-based Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children, which provides medical, rehabilitative, educational, recreational, and complementary alternative medical services to children and young adults with multiple disabilities. She always knew she wanted to get a master’s degree, but could never quite figure out when and how to do it. Then her supervisor told her about the graduate certificate program in human service and leadership management at the Sawyer Business School’s Moakley Center for Public Management. She started the program in fall 2022 and loved the experience.

“In the first week of the certificate program, I felt like this was meant to be, that these are my people,” she says. “It felt like I was embarking on a career path.”

Completing the certificate gave Santiago the confidence to continue graduate studies, so with the encouragement of her professors, she applied for a Commonwealth Fellowship, which offers exceptional managers across the state a full-tuition scholarship to the Suffolk MPA program as well as full salary while they’re a student.

“The fellowship really allowed me to take my studies as a serious part of my job, not just something that I do when I have the time to squeeze it in,” says Santiago. “It was really an honor to be able to represent the Commonwealth in the program.”

The benefits of her MPA, say Santiago, have been very clear. Not only did she receive a promotion right after completing her degree in December 2024, she also has a renewed sense of confidence in her new role, whether it’s understanding the details of what’s being discussed in finance meetings or thinking more strategically. She was also better prepared to navigate the state’s announcement in early 2025 that it was going to shutter Pappas for good.

“I think graduating in December and then having to jump right into this new world of possible closure allowed me to see things in a much more strategic, government-focused way,” she says. (Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has since paused the closure.)

As she prepares to march in Commencement on May 18 with her wife and children cheering her on from the audience, Santiago says she appreciates Suffolk’s heritage of supporting public service professionals. “I think it really speaks to what Suffolk brings specifically for state employees that the partnership is there,” she says. “So much of that is proximity to the State House and to where the center of government is happening and the access that Suffolk has to all of it.”