The MPA Program nominated
Stephany Pizano, Brian Murphy, and Hallee Haygood
to represent the Program at the
2020 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition
on March 7.
The NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition is a day-long event that allows graduate students in public policy and related fields to test their skills on real-world data. This year's simulation centered around Sustainable Cities. Check out recaps from each below, and consider applying for the 2021 simulation!
Stephany Pizano:
Participating in the 2020 NASPAA-BATTEN Student Simulation, on March 7
th
at Pepperdine University, was a stimulating experience that taught me much more than the complexities of sustainable transit in urban cities. I learned about my strengths and weaknesses and reflected on my priorities as a public servant in my community. For example, as I was playing the games, I thought more of the big picture consequences of our decisions as they would change our simulated city in the future, while my teammates were more in tune with how a policy immediately affected our numbers (emissions, expenses, revenue). Many of my class concepts also came to life like teamwork, communication, finances, and regulations, among other topics, all came into play throughout the competition. Managing to communicate efficiently to make decisions was just as important as understanding the transportation concepts.
The simulation itself was an intense day of critical thinking, collaboration, and decision making. There were three games, each with several rounds of policy to enact to implement sustainable transportation, reduce CO2 emissions, and best serve the five distinct districts in our city. The fast-paced nature of the rounds was challenging and exciting because each time we implemented a policy, we saw the intended and unintended results in our simulated district right before our eyes. I loved that community engagement was a strong component of the competition and was a crucial factor in the policies that we decided to make. As a team, we quickly learned that every policy decision made was multidimensional and affected all sectors of our imaginary city, our residents, and each of our roles. The simulation was a completely different way of learning; it confirmed my desire to study public administration and work in public affairs. Once again, thank you for this opportunity that I hope many more UNC-Chapel Hill, MPA students get to experience.
Brian Murphy:
As climate change continues to impact the way we live our lives, it is important that cities increase their efforts to mitigate it. Hallee Haygood, Stephany Pizano, and I were given an opportunity to participate in a simulation that allowed us to test various policies that local governments can implement in zoning, taxes, and transportation to encourage sustainable living and limit greenhouse gas emissions. The simulation gave team members various roles in a local government and would give us feedback on the effectiveness of the policies that we implemented in our towns. After the simulation ended, we worked with our teammates to write a policy memo and presentation in an hour. I hope to never have that kind of deadline for a memo ever again. We were all on different teams and having the opportunity to work with students from across the country (and world, one of my teammates is from Colombia) gave us a chance to discuss a variety of viewpoints on these issues. I’m looking forward to taking those viewpoints with me as I start a career in local government and do my best to implement policies that have an impact on the future of the planet.
Hallee Haygood:
The NASPAA-Batten competition was an incredible way to put the skills I have learned from the MPA Program to the test. This year, the focus was on creating sustainable cities, and how we could improve transportation infrastructure in our test municipalities.
My group specifically looked at creating high speed rails, adding more bus lines and making existing ones longer, and implementing an increased gas tax. Although we did not place, it was a very fun way to learn about new policy options. The simulation focused on showing changes every year, so we could actually see the effects of implementation.
Despite each year technically being a ten-minute round, the process allowed me to see the impacts of decision-makers. I hope to take the lessons I learned from this process and apply them to any role I serve in going forward.
