Carolina MPA Student Digest 8/20/21: |
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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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September 6: September Term Online classes start
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October 12: University Day Events
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December 11-12: Fall Graduation Events
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March 3-5, 2022: TENTATIVE date for the MPA Immersion
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As you have already heard, Dr. Willow Jacobson has been named the next MPA Director! She starts as the first female to serve in this capacity on September 1, 2021. Jacobson joined the MPA program’s faculty in 2003, drawn to the School of Government’s mission of engaged scholarship. As a public administration scholar looking to connect theory with practice, the opportunity to make a tangible impact both in the classroom and at the community level was appealing to Jacobson.
Dr. Bill Rivenbark has graciously led the program for two 5-year terms and will be continuing on in his faculty role. This fall, he is teaching PUBA 753, Performance Management.
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The intranet has served as a resource for students for over five years and this past spring and summer we utilized feedback from students to improve the site by including valuable new and updated content and improved user-experience functionality of the site.
An Overview of the Site:
There are several headers on the home page that have further navigation underneath them. Below is a general description of the content housed within each header.
- Home
- General school, program, and contact information.
- Academics
- Curriculum and academic and program policy information.
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Student Engagement
- Professional Development, Social, and Leadership Opportunities, Networking, Annual Events, Academic Advising, library resources, and School of Government resources.
- Career Services
- Career resources including but not limited to: understanding your skills and experiences, exploring careers/jobs, job searching resources, resumes & cover letters, and interviewing.
- Alumni
- Opportunities to engage with alumni and how to stay connected with the program once you graduate.
- Communication and Calendar
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This section also provides an overview of our main mechanisms of communication during your time in the program including the recently created MPA Communication Guide.
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Calendar information with up-to-date events and information about listservs and how we communicate.
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You can integrate the program calendar in to your personal calendar of choice.
- You can also access the Calendar in Outlook: Add Calendar àFrom Address Bookà Search for UNC MPA Student Calendar. That way, you can always have it available to you!
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SOG Library Services this Fall |
The Knapp-Sanders Library, located on the 2nd floor of the School of Government, is available to all MPA students. Library Staff Frank Alford and Yadira Conyers are happy to help our students locate materials and assist with research questions. Please email them at library@sog.unc.edu when needing assistance. Meetings are available via Zoom and Teams, and materials are available via contactless pickup outside the library. The main floor of the library is available for study space 9:00 am-3:00 pm Monday through Friday currently.
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ncIMPACT Offers American Rescue Plan Funds Office Hours |
Please join the SOG's own ncIMPACT to ask questions about ARP/ARPA Funds (aka Coronavirus Local Fiscal Relief Funds, CLFRF, or Fiscal Relief Funds). The UNC School of Government and partners will do our best to help you navigate the federal guidance and state law authority. Bring a specific question and listen to what other local governments are proposing across the state.
Each ARP Office Hour session begins with a brief overview/update and then opens up for questions about distribution, expenditure authority, and compliance requirements. School of Government colleagues lead these meetings, as well as colleagues from the NC League of Municipalities, NC Association of County Commissioners, NC Pandemic Recovery Office, NC Department of State Treasurer, and others, as their schedules allow.
These ARP Office Hours are FREE to join and you do not need to pre-register. Just come with your questions.
Upcoming ARP Office Hours:
- Friday, August 27 at 8:30am
Set your calendar and make plans to attend:
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News from Carolina Across 100
Students will play a key role Carolina Across 100, engaging communities across the state to better understand the needs of residents and how the University can serve the state to support its economic development and pandemic recovery. To begin to understand the challenges for full recovery, students are helping with “deep listening,” beginning with an initial phase of pilot interviews to hear from community members on the challenges they face.
Four students, one graduate and three undergraduate, are engaged in the early work of hearing from communities and thinking through how to share their experiences with more students at Carolina. These students are interviewing 24 leaders in sectors and regions across the state to help develop a survey that will go to 10,000 people in North Carolina. In addition to interview skills, they are learning survey design skills and working with experts at Carolina’s Odum Institute.
ncIMPACT would like to recruit 50 more students who can conduct an additional 150 interviews after the survey closes. These interviews will require a five-hour time commitment. Undergraduate and graduate students in any major or school can apply. Training is provided and students will work in pairs. Each pair will conduct six interviews and divide the work between them, with each student leading three interviews while the other takes notes.
Read more and access the application:
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Spring 2022 Immersion Topic Announced |
Title: Changing the DNA of your Community
Faculty: Whitney Afonso
The course description:
This course will discuss how change is implemented and financed in local government. Change is a fact of life, even for governments, but it is not always straightforward. As populations grow, decline, age, and evolve government needs to change with it. One way in which this happens is through economic development. Economic development can have great potential to attract businesses and residents, but current residents must also be considered. This course will focus on one of those critical elements, how to finance change. It will address issues of balancing fairness with pragmatism and short term versus long run needs. It will also highlight a broad range of School of Government faculty and the work that we do with practitioners across the state.
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University & Beyond Events |
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- Campus Opportunities
- COVID -19 booster shots available for immunocompromised students
- Free Statistical/Data Science Consulting
- Playmakers Returns to In-Person Theater
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October 12: University Day
- Virtual Opportunities
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September 9: Race, Racism, & Racial Equity Symposium
- Learning & Writing Center
- Semester Action Plan
- Academic Coaching, Writing Coaching, Peer Tutoring
- ADHD Open House
- Professional Development Opportunities
- Call for Applications for the Graduate Certificate in Innovation, Leadership, & Management
- DUE AUGUST 23: Paid Court Advocacy and Community Response Internship
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COVID-19 Booster Shots Available for Immunocompromised Students |
Hi everyone,
I hope that this message finds you both well! My name is Neel Swamy, and I serve as the President of the UNC Graduate and Professional Student Government. Over the weekend, I learned that UNC Student Stores Pharmacy is providing COVID-19 booster vaccines (Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna) to students who self-attest to being immunocompromised. Walk-in visits for COVID-19 booster vaccines will be accepted, but students are encouraged to make an appointment (Wed-Fri) at this website: Covidvax.unc.edu. Of note, students may be asked to provide documentation to support their self-attestation.
While we await an official University-wide communication about this opportunity, I thought you may want to share this information with your respective student groups. From what I've gathered, information about the booster vaccines is already circulating on social media.
Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you for all that you do to support Carolina's students!
Sincerely,
Neel
Neel Swamy (he/him/his)
PharmD/MPH Candidate, Class of 2023
President, Graduate and Professional Student Government
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Free Statistical/Data Science Consulting |
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The UNC Department of Statistics and Operations Research announces the availability of free statistical / data science consulting. Our goal is to teach this important skill to graduate students, but you can get some free data analytic assistance in the process.
The course format involves clients giving a presentation about the problem at hand. This generates a question and answer dialog, which by itself has proven to be useful in helping clients formulate their ideas. Then typically one student is assigned to work on the actual data, with a final written report expected.
In the past we have worked with a very wide range of clients, from Masters students needing help with the statistical end of their dissertation, all the way up to distinguished professors. While there are limits to what can be done in the context of this course, some contacts initially made through this course have led to ongoing joint research, grant proposals and published papers in very diverse fields.
To sign up for this type of consulting, or to discuss this further, please contact Steve Marron, Department of Statistics and Operations Research, UNC, CB 3260, Email: marron@unc.edu. Additional information is available at the web address: https://stor.unc.edu/outreach/consulting/
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We're committed to giving you the best experience and peace of mind this season. Did you know...
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Face coverings are required at all times in our building, in accordance with UNC-Chapel Hill community standards. This extends to all patrons and PlayMakers staff...except our actors while performing on stage!
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We'll be filming our first show, Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth". If it becomes necessary to cancel any performances, we are ready to stream the production on demand for at least a week.
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Each production this season will have two socially distanced performances. You can find specific dates here and subscribe to them all season.
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Subscribers get added flexibility. If you need to exchange your seats for another evening, for any reason, subscribers just contact our Box Office for fee free ticket exchange.
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Subscribe before SEPT 7 and save! It's like getting one show free, and you get the best seats all season long.
We take very seriously our responsibility to provide both a safe as well as entertaining and transformative theatre experience. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email our Audience Services team at prcboxoffice@unc.edu
We hope to see you at the theatre soon - we're saving a seat for you!
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University Day will be held Oct. 12, 2021, at 2 p.m.
Classes will be canceled from 1:45 p.m. until 3:30 p.m.
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The Race, Racism, and Racial Equity (R3) Symposium, hosted by the University Office for Diversity and Inclusion, Jordan Institute for Families, and Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the UNC School of Social Work, is a series of virtual events that brings together scholars and researchers from across campus to share their work with Carolina and the broader community.
The fourth in the R3 series, “The Many Faces of Environmental (In)Justice: Scholarship Addressing Racism, Infrastructure and Climate Action,” will be held on Thursday, Sept. 9, 1:30–3 p.m. Scholars from departments across UNC, including Epidemiology, Public Health, Social Work and Urban Planning, will share their work addressing environmental justice and climate action.
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This Week at the Writing & Learning Center |
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It's the start of a new semester, and we’re here to help you succeed! Click on this Semester Action Plan handout for a handy worksheet to guide your goal-setting. Did you know students made more than 11,000 appointments with us last academic year? You can make appointments with us now or at any point in the semester. Simply click through if you’d like to learn more about academic coaching, writing coaching, and peer tutoring. Make an appointment today by clicking here!
Probably hanging out in the Writing and Learning Center in SASB North. Find us on this handy map and stop in to say hello!
Start off your semester wisely! Outline semester goals, create a balanced weekly routine, and complete a semester planner. Register here using your @email.unc.edu address.
Come join us for our first ADHD, Me and UNC event of the semester to learn all about resources available to support college students with ADHD. Register here.
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Call for Applications for the Graduate Certificate in Innovation, Leadership and Management
The Graduate Certificate in Innovation, Leadership and Management offers you the opportunity to develop the professional skills employers seek while gaining exposure to a variety of careers. You can complete a foundations or an advanced level Certificate through which you will:
- Gain skills in areas that are recognized as important for professional success, such as communication, leadership, project management, and accounting.
- Gain skillsets useful for a broad range of careers, including tenure-track academic careers, alternative academic careers, and careers outside of academia.
- Learn about a variety of careers available with an advanced degree.
- Meet graduate students outside of your field and learn in an interdisciplinary setting.
Your graduate school transcript will note that you have completed the Graduate Certificate in Innovation, Leadership and Management.
The application to join the Fall 2021 cohort of the Graduate Certificate in Innovation, Leadership and management is available at this link.
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Carolina MPA | UNC School of Government | carolinampa.sog.unc.edu | Website | Intranet
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