Carolina MPA Student Digest 4/16/21: |
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Featured in this Digest:
- Upcoming Calendar Dates
- MPA News & Resource Highlights
- Campus & Beyond Events
- Professional Development & Volunteer Opportunities
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Carolina MPA Calendar
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April 26: Online May term classes begin
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April 28, 6 pm EDT: MPA Community Conversations: The Arts Economy and Recovery After Covid (details below)
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May 15: University Commencement
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May 16, 11 am EDT: MPA Virtual Commencement
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June 1: Fall registration opens for on-campus classes
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June 28: September term registration opens for online classes
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July 25: Online May term classes end
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The Arts Economy and Recovery After Covid
When: April 28, 2021
Time: 6:00 PM-7:00 PM
Where: Virtual, register here
Join fellow MPA alums and students as we launch a Community Conversation around the Arts.
We are excited to hear insights on the topic of the arts economy and recovery after Covid-19 from Dara Silver, the Senior Vice President of Community Engagement & Partner Relations with The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County and Nate McGaha, the Executive Director of Arts North Carolina.
We look forward to having this conversation and connecting with people who have a shared passion, a shared academic background, and want to use this knowledge to build stronger and more resilient arts communities.
Brought to you by: MPA Students Jeana Taylor, Lauren Duncan, Daisy Calixtro & the MPA Program
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Watch Tiffany Oliva in the Global All-Star NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Round TONIGHT! |
Big congratulations are in order to current online format student Tiffany Oliva and her team for winning 1st place in the North America NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Challenge competition held last month. Her team will compete in the global competition today , Friday, April 16th, 7 PM EDT. You can watch her team compete in the final round of this year's competition, which will be live-streamed here via YouTube.
Oliva, along with current MPA online format students Jeana Taylor, Meredith Marlier, Jane Kaufmann, and on-campus format student Chase Loudermelt were selected to represent the UNC MPA program at the 2021 Student Simulation, a day-long event that allows graduate students in public policy and related fields across the world to test their skills on real-world data.
Each year, the Center for Leadership Simulation and Gaming develops an original participatory simulation on a topic of relevance. This year’s topic was, not surprisingly, pandemic oriented. Past topics have included Global Migration and Sustainable Cities. The simulations employ a realistic situation, and participating students are randomly place in teams of five. Each team, under limited time, is provided information on the problem. They are then tasked with creating a policy memo and giving a presentation, which is judged and scored by subject area experts.
Professional development opportunities like this allow for skill building in areas of negotiation, decision making, and teamwork. "We encourage students to participate in professional development opportunities such as the NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Challenge because it helps students apply theory to practice and gain important skills to support career growth," said Allison Binkley, Associate Director for Career Services and Professional Development for the MPA program.
We appreciate all of our UNC MPA students, and we would like to especially recognize our four online students and one on-campus student who participated in this opportunity even though the competition was held virtually.
Oliva was placed with students from VCU, the University of Missouri, and NYU.
"The NASPAA-Batten competition was an opportunity for me to apply some of the skills I have learned in UNC’s MPA program to make quick, team decisions about economic, health, and equity policy to contain a pandemic outbreak," she said. "It was a fun learning experience, and I am excited to have moved on to compete in the global round of the competition with our team of students from NYU, VCU, and the University of Missouri.”
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Stress Management for MPA Students |
By Clay Fleming
Hello again everyone! We are one month away from the end of the semester, which is always a busy and stressful time in the MPA program. The second-year students have submitted their final Portfolios and are preparing for their Oral Examinations while also applying for jobs. The first-year students are finalizing the research papers they have been working on all year while submitting group projects they have been managing throughout the semester. Read the rest HERE.
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On-Campus format student Clay Fleming on a coffee break/hike with fellow students Mira Singhal and Laura Robinson. |
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Deil Wright Lecture Recording Available |
Thanks to everyone who made this year's Deil Wright Lecture with Norma Riccucci a success! If you were not able to join us last week, please view the recording!
Riccucci examined the predictions demographers and economists made in the 1980s about how the social makeup of the American workforce will change by the 21st century. It was predicted that by the year 2000 greater job opportunities for African Americans and Latinx would be created, particularly in the technology industry. She will discuss whether these forecasts have been realized and achieved.
Riccucci is the author of numerous publications and books including Policy Drift: Shared Powers and the Making of U.S. Law and Policy (New York University Press, 2018). Riccucci’s research interests lie in the broad area of public management, with specific interests in social equity policies and representative bureaucracy.
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University & Beyond Events |
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- COVID Resources
- UNC Student Vaccination Clinic Pivots to Moderna
- Virtual Opportunities to Connect
- UNC Ramadan Information
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April 19: Debating the Minimum Wage
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Ongoing: UNC Celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
- Professional Development Opportunities
- Schwarzman Scholars Applications are Open
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July 12-23: Government Finance Officer's Association Virtual Conference
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UNC Student Vaccination Clinic Pivots to Moderna |
UNC undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and eligible partners/spouses can be vaccinated against COVID-19 at the Carolina Student Vaccination Clinic.
An abrupt call by federal health officials to pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine prompted clinics around the country to halt injections of the single-shot vaccine, but other vaccines are still available to protect people from the coronavirus. The Carolina Student Vaccination Clinic, which had been administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, reacted quickly and paused its operations April 13. The decision was made out of an abundance of caution, said UNC-Chapel Hill Campus Health Executive Director Ken Pittman. The clinic will reopen April 16 using Moderna vaccinations. More information on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause can be found here: https://www.unc.edu/posts/2021/04/14/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-johnson-johnson-pause/
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Religious Accommodations
To continue support of our Muslim community during the Holy Month of Ramadan, the Muslim Student Association has worked with Elizabeth Hall, Interim Associate Vice Chancellor of Equal Opportunity and Compliance at UNC.
ICM Taraweeh
ICM will hold Isha and Taraweeh Prayers in the Banquet Hall and Musallah in TWO shifts in order to accommodate as many people as possible while maintaining social distancing. Imam Abdullahi will be leading all Taraweeh prayers assisted by other Hafiz brothers from the community, in sha’Allah.
9:30 - 10:15 p.m.: First shift (Isha in hall + 8 raka'aat in hall, no witr)
10:15 - 10:30 p.m.: Transition and 4 raka'aat (for those staying for all 20)
10:30 - 11:15 p.m.: Second shift (Isha in Musallah + 8 raka'aat in hall + witr)
Space outside will be available in the parking lot between 101 and 107 buildings.
All attendees will be required to wear masks (including those who are vaccinated) and maintain social distancing. We ask that family members pray in close groups in order to conserve space and allow more people to attend.
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Carolina Celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month |
Carolina is celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month this April with several campus-wide events, including panels, performances and the creation of a cookbook.
The celebration is spearheaded by the UNC Asian American Center, which was founded in 2020 and whose mission is to cultivate a critical understanding of Asian American peoples, cultures and histories. Through education, organizing and advocacy, the center engages and empowers Asian American students, faculty and staff.
The monthlong celebration aims to do just that.
“Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month is an opportunity to highlight the diverse histories and cultures of this large and understudied community,” said Heidi Kim, the director of the UNC Asian American Center and an associate professor in the English and comparative literature department in the College of Arts & Sciences. “It’s an especially important celebration this year in the wake of tragedy. Asian Americans need and deserve this celebration, and so do Pacific Islander Americans. Both communities have been hit hard by COVID in different ways. There’s already been such positive attention after the [March 16] Atlanta shootings, so I hope the Carolina community will come out to learn more. We’re showcasing amazing art, performance, scholarship and community work.”
Opportunities to engage in Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month include:
The celebration at Carolina will conclude with a livestreamed event, “Story from the Ages,” which will feature spoken word, performance and storytelling that highlights the Asian and Pacific American experience. Premiering April 30 at 7:30 p.m., the livestream will consist of videos submitted by the Carolina community.
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The Schwarzman Scholars Application Is Open
I’m thrilled to announce that the application for the seventh cohort of Schwarzman Scholars is officially open. As the world’s focus on China continues to grow, our Scholars have a front-row seat to the importance that collaboration and mutual understanding play in tackling global challenges. The complex geopolitical developments of the last year serve as further proof that the world needs Schwarzman Scholars – and more quickly than we could have predicted.
I would like to ask for your help in sharing the news of our application launch with compelling candidates for our program: exceptional leaders with integrity, creativity and a drive to succeed. With your support, we can continue to fulfill our mission of bringing together the best young minds to better understand the economic, political and cultural factors that contribute to China’s growing importance as a global power.
As you know, we are currently hosting our fifth cohort, who have demonstrated enormous resilience, flexibility and willingness to learn in the face of the global pandemic. Though they have not yet been able to come together in Beijing, I have watched them engage in classes virtually, get to know one another and participate in many collaborative activities.
Our incoming sixth cohort, announced this past December, features 154 remarkable Scholars chosen from more than 3,600 applicants and includes students from 39 countries and 99 universities. We have quickly become one of the most prestigious graduate fellowships globally, with admission rates consistently below 5%.
We were also thrilled to announce a new addition to our team this year, Executive Director Lara Tiedens. Lara will join us in May from Scripps College, where she currently serves as President. Amy Stursberg will become the new CEO of Schwarzman Scholars and deserves our greatest thanks and recognition. Amy has been with us since the very beginning, and Schwarzman Scholars would not exist without her tireless efforts.
To access the application and learn more about requirements, candidates can visit our website at The Schwarzman Scholars. The deadline for U.S. and other non-China candidates is September 21, 2021. Interviews will be held virtually in late October and early November, and candidates selected for admission will be notified in mid-November 2021.
Thank you for your continued support of the program. I look forward to keeping you updated.
Stephen A. Schwarzman
Founding Trustee, Schwarzman Scholars
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We continue to live through unprecedented times: the crisis of COVID-19, economic uncertainty, social and racial unrest, and weather catastrophes. How do we lead during these turbulent times? How do we lead beyond them? Join GFOA for our 2021 Virtual Conference, July 12‒23, to hear from leading practitioners, recognized industry experts, researchers, and your peers how to effectively prioritize the current needs of your community and prepare for any future challenges.
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Carolina MPA | UNC School of Government | carolinampa.sog.unc.edu | Website | Intranet
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