A university program that prepares students for professional public policy work is set to expand after it was awarded a new federal grant earlier this year.
The $951,000 earmark will let the university’s Federal Semester program add a fourth focus, expand from 60 to 80 students, hire additional faculty and offer stipends and scholarships to participants, said Joan Burton, the program’s director.
Classes in the program aim to “empower students for their professional lives in the future” and teach them how federal policy works outside the classroom, Burton said.
“Here we are in the heart of the federal government, a place full of opportunity,” Burton said. “To bring undergraduates into the real world and let them see how to use their academic studies to make a real difference in the world through federal, public service, is just great.”
The program may also offer a beacon of hope for upperclassmen frantic in the search for employment amid seemingly never-ending reports of poor job markets, as some top internship opportunities could translate into secure federal employment after graduation.
In the program, students enroll in one of the three fall semester seminars: health policy, homeland security policy or U.S. policy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Each seminar has about 20 students. The federal grant will add a new energy and environmental policy section next year.
Students take trips to federal agencies and participate in professional development workshops to perfect interview skills and learn how to craft the ideal resumé. Experts in various policy fields routinely visit to explain how the information students learn applies to the real world.
“It wasn’t just a boring lecture,” said senior communications major Liz Wright, who took the homeland security section. “It wasn’t one of those things that sometimes you’re like, ‘Oh, I took that class and got nothing.’ I feel like I got a lot out of [the seminar] and learned a lot. There’s nothing more you can ask out of a program that gives you an education that you can apply in a practical way.”
Burton emphasized that Federal Semester is a gateway to paid internships and career opportunities after graduation, because, as older generations retire in vast numbers, they leave “such room for new voices in government.”
Students are expected to secure an internship that relates to their field of study in the spring semester, but they aren’t just turned loose in a sea of federal bureaucracies and told to hope for the best.
Burton and her staff, comprised mostly of professionals from outside the university who come to teach a section related to their field, connect students with agencies and organizations that have open positions.
Aarisha Shrestha, a senior neurobiology, physiology and Spanish major who works in a sub-agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, said her internship practically fell into her lap.
“Dr. Burton sent out names to [the department],” she said. “And I got a phone call. So it was pretty wonderful.”
This semester, all 60 students had internships, 42 within federal agencies ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Burton said — others worked in nonprofits and other public policy organizations.
The federal grant money should make the program even more appealing, Burton said.
Beyond creating the new environmental section, it will help create scholarships for Federal Semester students interested in graduate school in public policy at this university, fund additional staff, develop new connections with outside agencies and professionals and add a transportation stipend — a component that Burton called “hugely important.”
“Taking the Metro is like $8 per day, twice a week, so it adds up to be a lot of money,” Wright said. “They don’t want that cost to be a detriment to you if you have a really cool internship … it definitely makes it a lot easier on us.”
Both Shrestha and Wright said they expect the tangible work experience they get from their internships to be invaluable in their future job hunt.
“I felt like I had a leg up and knew what was going on,” Wright said. “It’ll be really helpful to have someone on the inside especially if you’re applying directly to a federal agency, it’s really complicated and bureaucratic. Trying to figure it out on my own was really confusing; there’s so many forms and background checks. I’m already used to how things work.”
Students majoring in everything from economics to philosophy are participating in the program, and “one of the great joys of that is you have all those voices in the classroom together,” Burton said.
Wright said she applies her background in public relations at her internship with the U.S. Navy Office of Information to write reports for the director of communications and is promoting a project to fly a jet using biofuels.
Shrestha, who is applying to medical school, said she attends conferences that help with her research project about medical countermeasures to natural disasters or terrorist attacks.
“Especially after fall semester, I wanted to not just learn about health policy but actually see how it works, especially with health care being so hot in Washington right now,” Shrestha said. “I wanted to be involved … and see what it takes to create a policy. I really think in the past four months I can really see myself working for the government in health policy.”
agulin@umdbk.com
