After traveling to Turkey earlier this year as part of a class, Batten School MPP student Shannon Joyce became interested in how people across the world gain access to information from their governments. Joyce then interned at the Carter Center this summer, a nonprofit public policy center founded by former president Jimmy Carter. With the Carter Center as her sponsor, she submitted a proposal to lead a workshop at the World Bank on a topic of her choosing. Her topic: informing youth of the power of information and providing them with tools to use their right of access to information to improve their communities.
Her proposal was accepted, and she led that workshop in late 2014. “Half the battle is getting legislation passed,” Joyce says, “but that is the easy part in comparison to spreading awareness of access issues and encouraging citizens to use their legal rights.”
Graduate students from the Batten School, U.Va.’s Darden School of Business and the School of Law have created a new leadership fellowship program to practice cross-sector collaboration in the face of real-world problems. The Tri-Sector Leadership Fellows meet monthly to hear from high-profile speakers, share insights from their fields and tackle real public policy challenges.
Research by Batten School student Elizabeth Minneman was recently published in the OECD Journal on Budgeting, which is distributed to policy leaders in 34 countries and translated into 12 languages.
Minneman conducted this research on international fiscal policy during her internship at the National Governors Association, through the Peter G. Peterson Fiscal Internship program. Her article—“The Abuse and Misuse of the Term ‘Austerity,’ Implications for OECD Countries”—looks into definitions of austerity used in economic research internationally and the ways these different definitions impact analysis of policy effects.
Minneman also serves on the boards of the College Republican National Committee and the College Republican Federation of Virginia.
Before coming to the Batten School, first year MPP student Joshua Ogburn had worked in both government and private industry. He has a longstanding interest in seeing problems solved through innovative solutions. Ogburn is especially interested in the world of Social Impact Bonds, so he created the website Social Impact Bond Review (www.sibreview.com) as a resource for others interested in the growing field. He is also engaged in preliminary talks with state officials about how to further SIB in Virginia.
In January 2015, the student-run Virginia Policy Review hosted the third annual National Journal Conference for Schools of Public Policy and Affairs. Graduate public policy students from across the country came to Charlottesville to share best practices, listen to accomplished professionals and discuss policy journalism. “There is nothing more valuable than sharing what works well with your fellow policy students from across the country,” says Franklin Bontempo, VPR editor-in-chief. “This annual conference genuinely contributes to raising the bar for student public policy journals.”
Natalie Roper (MPP ’14) has been named the first executive director of Generation West Virginia, which serves as a source of action and a voice for young talent across West Virginia.
“It’s an honor to join Generation West Virginia,” Roper says. “West Virginia has so much to offer and can’t afford to lose the next generation’s creative solutions, motivation for change and drive for action. I am excited about the important work ahead.”