UVA Batten Dean Allan C. Stam and NASPAA Executive Director Laurel McFarland sign the 5-year student Simulation Competition affiliation agreement. Also shown: Bill Ashby, Senior Associate Dean for Administration at UVA Batten and Leigh Anne Elliott, NASPAA's new Education and Events Manager.

NASPAA announced this week a five-year affiliation agreement to partner with the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy for its Student Simulation Competition. This collaboration will allow NASPAA and the Batten School to develop and operate a world-class quality competition. It will also further the nonprofit education and research missions of NASPAA and the Batten School. The agreement was signed this week in Washington, D.C. by NASPAA Executive Director, Laurel McFarland, and the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy Dean, Allan C. Stam. The Simulation Competition will be named "The NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition," and it will take place annually in February.

"This affiliation reinforces NASPAA's commitment to quality in public policy education through the alignment of the Simulation Competitions with NASPAA's universal competencies and public service values, and demonstrates the tremendous learning opportunities gained by using simulations to immerse students in scenarios where they are able to immediately see the complexities and systemic aspects of public policy and management challenges," said McFarland. 

The additional outcomes of this competition include opportunities to showcase MPA/MPP students' skills and abilities for the public, prospective students and employers, while bringing awareness to excellence in public service education at public policy schools. In addition, the partnership will popularize simulations for use in public policy school educational pedagogy and demonstrate the value of the simulation platform as a vehicle to advance system thinking about public policy/management problems. Furthermore, this will provide an opportunity for MPA/MPP students to rapidly perceive the complexity of public policy problems, to experience unintended consequences of actions and to see intergenerational impacts of public policy decisions in order to gain a greater appreciation of the systemic effects of their actions. This will also provide an opportunity for MPA/MPP student engagement with public policy problems of global interest. 

"The UVA Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy is delighted to be partnering with NASPAA on the international Student Simulation Competition. We believe that computer-assisted models and simulations are the way forward for schools of public affairs, public administration and public policy in the 21st century. Students gain valuable leadership experience in these simulations which prepare them for the challenges of the modern world," said Dean Stam.

My three-month internship at the G20 Research Group in Canada promises meaningful experiences for me, especially in the context of the upcoming G20 Summit in September. It not only fits well into my areas of interest in climate change and gender studies, but also will help me develop the necessary knowledge and skills needed to orient my future career. I feel lucky to be a student from the NASPAA Simulation Competition to receive this honor.

The G20 Research Group provides a good learning and working environment where I can apply what I learn through my academic and work experiences to research. I am currently contributing to the climate change compliance report aiming at assessing the commitment of G20 members to different areas. This task is adding my strong background and professional experience in a number of climate change projects, such as "Agriculture-Farmers-Rural Areas development" by IFAD, "Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change" by USAID, and "Environmentally and Socially Responsible Tourism" by the European Union. In addition, I am in charge of data analysis and building best-fit regression models to evaluate the impact of different potential predictors on the variance of average compliance value. From it, I further develop my strong quantitative analysis skills, including Stata, SPSS, and Excel, to become more adept at evaluating and predicting the efficiency of public policies. Taken together, my work will contribute to help identify feasible and evidence-based policy recommendations for the G20's Hangzhou Summit.

I find the knowledge and experience that I gained from the NASPAA Climate Change Simulation competition very valuable. During my research, I encounter many concepts and ideas from the competition. For example, when it comes to carbon pricing, green growth or energy efficiency, I can easily refer to our policy recommendation package. Various concepts and methods that I learned from competition and G20 Research Group will also help me develop ideas for my intended thesis on green economy for emerging markets.

I believe that internship at G20 Research Group will help deepen my knowledge about global governance with the emphasis on G7, G8 and G20. Moreover, it is also a valuable chance for me to get to know more about Canadian culture and politics. I really appreciate this opportunity with NASPAA. I will be sharing more about my experience here, by writing blogs and articles, which will be published on NASPAA's website. In the intensive environment of the internship, I can offer my flexibility, enthusiasm and great interest in being part of the association.

How will you be working with NASPAA in particular with your new role with PPIA?

Public Service Weekends were created to introduce a broadly diverse population of students to opportunities in public service. 

This year we have three 2016 conferences that will be hosted nationally:  Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College in DC from July 29-31, the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University- Bloomington from October 20-23, and at Binghamton University from October 28-30. Information about the public service weekends can be found below and online at  ppiaprogram.org/ppia/dDYtU

What are your goals in working with NASPAA to instill public service values in our students via public service weekends?
The PPIA program values the opportunity to develop meaningful programs and our partnership with NASPAA. Our partnership allows our efforts to be promoted nationally to ensure that we are reaching institutions that support, and coach students to pursue a career in public service. One of my goals is to work collaboratively in order to ensure that we are identifying and developing programs that provide high impact, and meaningful engagement.

Would you mind briefly discussing the plans for the upcoming public service weekends and how NASPAA schools can help?
Our Public Service Weekends are three-day conferences that intend to expose students to opportunities in the field of public service. Each campus host has worked diligently to develop a program the reflects the strengths of their programs, and intend to generate relevant discussion around the future of the field. NASPAA schools can support our programs by encouraging students from their institutions to apply and consider this opportunity.