PPIA Spring 2017 Newsletter

Greetings PPIA community,

This June, I will be stepping down from my position as Dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs to assume the Presidency of Refugees International, the Washington, DC-based non-governmental organization that advocates on behalf of the rights of refugees and displaced persons and the principles of international humanitarianism. In light of this transition, I will also be resigning my position as PPIA Chair and stepping down from the PPIA Board.

It has been an honor for me to serve as PPIA Chair, and I was so grateful for the decision in late 2015 to locate the PPIA secretariat at the Humphrey School. I am also delighted that the Humphrey School will be commencing our own Junior Summer Institute, and I hope to remain as connected as possible to this important work even after my own transition. PPIA has such a critically important mission, and I want to thank members of our Board and PPIA Alumni for their continued engagement and continued support.

Sincerely,

Eric Schwartz
Chair, PPIA Board of Directors
Dean, Humphrey School of Public Affairs

Public Service Expo 2017

Friday, July 14, 2017

3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Free Admission

Marvin Center, George Washington University

Held in the nation's capital, the PPIA Public Service Expo serves as a creative commons for prospective applicants to public policy and international affairs schools, for individuals seeking public service careers and internships, and for strengthening a community of high-impact individuals.

Learn more about our expo here!

Alumni Voices

Jennifer Godinez

PPIA 1996 (Princeton University)

Associate Director, Minnesota Education Equity Partnership

We had the honor of speaking with PPIA Alum Jennifer Godinez, the Associate Director of the Minnesota Education Equity Partnership (MNEEP) , around the state of education in Minnesota and how MNEEP is working to ensure that students of color and American Indian students achieve their full academic and leadership success.

Our interview highlights the way MNEEP is transforming the way we examine race equity issues today. We also discuss what motivated Ms. Godinez to pursue a career in public service and education, and how PPIA and her graduate school experiences at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs play a role in her professional career.

Click here to read our full interview with Jennifer Godinez.

Michael Mitchell

PPIA 2009 (Carnegie Mellon University)

Senior Policy Analyst, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Michael Mitchell is the Senior Policy Analyst and Program Director of the State Policy Fellowship Program at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Mr. Mitchell focuses on criminal and juvenile justice reform and reinvestment as well as state higher education funding and affordability. He oversees the State Policy fellowship program designed specifically for recently graduated Masters students interested in conducting research and analyses on critical state budget and tax policy issues.

Follow the link to read our interview with Michael Mitchell where he discusses how PPIA has impacted his graduate studies and his professional career, the significance of his work today, and some of his proudest accomplishments.

Graduate School Consortium Spotlight
Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs

Ayanda Francis will graduate from Columbia SIPA this spring with a master's degree in international affairs. As a Thomas R. Pickering Fellow, she'll spend the next three years with the U.S. Foreign Service. She's also a Fulbright scholar who taught English in Turkey before enrolling in graduate school.

An Atlanta native, Ayanda planned to study science when she began college at Georgia Tech, but changed her path after winning a language scholarship to study in South Korea after her sophomore year. The next summer she took part in a PPIA summer program at Princeton University.

"After studying in Korea I used to joke with my friends that I would become an ambassador," she said. "But it was through PPIA that I learned that foreign service is a career path that people actually pursue. We learned about international affairs and economics in a setting that was similar to graduate school."

When it came time to actually pursue graduate studies, Ayanda says, Columbia SIPA was a great fit.

"My mom went to Teachers College, so I had always wanted to come to Columbia if I could," she said. "SIPA seemed like the perfect mix of everything, and it has indeed met my expectations-and broadened them."

At SIPA Ayanda has focused on economic and political development, with additional coursework in conflict resolution and Asian regional studies. She has also studied gender issues, with attention to what she calls "the gendered aspects of security-economic security, housing, climate."

Ayanda spent last summer in Timor-Leste, where she worked with the national police on gender issues. She hopes to return to Asia as her career progresses, and will spend this summer at an internship in South Korea-but won't learn her permanent assignment until this fall.

Pickering Fellows don't know where they're going to be sent, explains Ayanda. While it would be unusual to end up in Europe or Canada, she says, "anywhere else is fair game."

As graduation approaches, Ayanda is excited to move on, with mixed feelings about leaving the Big Apple.

"I won't miss the winter," she said, " but New York has definitely grown on me."

Columbia SIPA is the world's most global public policy school. Our mission is to serve the global public interest by educating students to serve and lead and by producing and sharing new knowledge on the critical public policy challenges facing the global community.

As Columbia University's most international school, we welcome half of our student body from outside the United States. In a typical year students represent 75 or more countries, bridging divides of language, culture, and national origin.

To attend SIPA is to join a vibrant multicultural community-to meet and study with people from around the world. As we embrace our international diversity, we also acknowledge other equally important differences such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and more.

Each year SIPA hosts a symposium on diversity that gives prospective students the chance to meet current students and faculty and to discuss the importance of diverse communities at schools of public policy and international affairs, including highly sought-after graduate programs like ours.

As part of orientation, SIPA trains new students in the areas of self-, social, and global awareness. Since 2014, incoming students have taken part in workshops that support what we call multicultural competence.

SIPA is increasing the enrollment of domestic underrepresented students in our various programs. Our Diversity Task Force is fostering a diversified student body at SIPA that will explore, expand, and enhance opportunities to serve local and global communities. And we are commited to ongoing efforts to train staff and peer advisors to handle concerns related to diversity and inclusiveness.

As Dean Merit E. Janow has said, "A focus on diversity is important for all schools, but it is a particular priority for SIPA because the process of designing public policy should reflect consideration for diverse segments of societies."

Congratulations to our 2017 University of California San Diego
School of Global Policy and Strategy
Public Service Weekend students!

The UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy's Public Service Weekend, April 22-23, 2017, was an interactive weekend designed to expose underrepresented undergraduate students in Southern California to the myriad of career options available to them in the public sector.

Thirty-two students from across California visited campus April 22-23, participating in discussions with faculty members and staff on building career skills, working in the public sector and applying to graduate school. The visitors interacted with current GPS graduate students and received a tour, focusing on the many campus resource centers.

Day one included expert career panels drawn from San Diego and Los Angeles, covering areas like education and public health policy, non-profit advocacy, environmental sustainability, and civil service through elected office. Students learned how to write a policy brief and craft a polished resume, and were treated to an advocacy boot camp by a distinguished practitioner in the field. The second day was focused on next steps, and explored higher education as a possible path forward.

The weekend engaged all members of the GPS community - faculty, students, staff and alumni - and began building deeper ties with regional community and 4-year colleges with the hopes of broadening the School's student pipeline and increasing the diversity of its student body.

Read the full story by the UCSD School of Global Policy and Strategy here!

Upcoming 2017 Summer Public Service Weekend Conferences

University of Southern California - Sol Price School of Public Policy