Students in the workshop met with staff at the East End Medical Center in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Policy Workshops

Policy workshops provide students with an opportunity to use the analytical skills they acquired in the first year of the program to analyze complex and challenging policy issues, usually for real-world clients.

The goal of the workshops is to understand a policy issue in great depth and to make policy recommendations that are both creative and realistic, given the relevant institutional and political constraints. Each workshop consists of eight to 10 students who work in teams to evaluate a policy challenge. Most students engage in field research during the fall break period. Each workshop produces a final report and gives a presentation to the client, typically by the end of the fall semester.

Fall 2023 Policy Workshop Topics and Faculty Instructors

SPI 591a: James Kerney Campus Visioning Project: Mercer County Community College - David Ehrenberg

SPI 591b: Behavioral Insights for Financial Inclusion - Varun Gauri

SPI 591d: How to Finance Renewable Energy in Puerto Rico - Eduardo Bhatia

SPI 591e: Implementing the ACA- Heather Howard and Dan Meuse

SPI 591f: Addressing China's Human Rights Violations Through (and at) the UN - Martin Flaherty

SPI 591g: Climate Change and Migration: Responses to New Challenges in Guatemala - Dafna Rand

SPI 591h: Examining Data and Data Ethics around Prevention Programming with IOM - Brian Kelly