Political Science Major (International Affairs)Executive Assistant, Revenue, State of Wisconsin
Nicole Pegram ’16, a political science major with a concentration in international affairs, is the Executive Assistant for the Secretary of Revenue for the State of Wisconsin.
Pegram first started her career in government by working in the Wisconsin Legislature. Since then, she has moved into the role of assistant for a Cabinet Secretary, where she serves in a variety of ways.
“In the legislature, I worked on a variety of policy topics, learned to write a bill and get it passed, signed, and enacted into law,” said Pegram. “Working in the legislature and then for a cabinet secretary, there is never a boring day. There is always something exciting happening, and you never know what kind of day you’re going to have when you wake up.”
While working in government for the last several years, Pegram has learned several valuable lessons.
“One of the lessons I learned very quickly was just how complex and not black and white a lot of policy issues are. I think as Christians we are often pushed to think of social issues as black and white, and frankly, when it comes to actually writing policy and seeing the impact it has on real people, that’s just not the case.”
Pegram continues, “Humans are complex, because we’re made in the image of God. You can’t legislate for God because He is way bigger than the American political systems, but we can legislate with the lens of caring for ‘the least of these.’ That’s what I strive to do every day both at work and in my personal life.”
While Pegram values the professors and community of Asbury, one of her favorite things about her college education is Asbury’s cross-cultural requirement.
“The cross-cultural experience requirement and the consistent emphasis on cross-cultural influence throughout all my education really set me up to better understand people, where they come from and how policies will affect them. I believe it also helped foster a greater sense of empathy, which is critical in my field of work.”