NEWS & VIEWS - WINTER 2009-2010
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In each issue:
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Events |
MPA midwinter gathering
Dinner, refreshments, and lively conversation at Humphrey Center!
This casual, catered event is one of the most anticipated programs specifically organized for and by MPA students and alumni. It is a chance to enjoy time with fellow students, make new connections, and engage with graduates who are now working and well-connected in our community. It’s a fabulous networking opportunity for MPA students.
Saturday, January 23
Social hour: 5 to 6 p.m.
Dinner: 6 to 8 p.m.
There will be a program feedback session from 4 to 5 p.m. Join us to share your thoughts on how we can improve the MPA program.
Please RSVP to hhhrsvp@umn.edu.
Humphrey School day at the Capitol
Thursday, February 11
Attend committee hearings, hear what it is like to be an elected official or a legislative staffer, discover which public affairs courses were most helpful, and other tips for success in legislative work.
12:45 p.m. Meet in the Capitol rotunda
1 to 1:45 p.m. Tour the State Capitol
2 to 3:30 p.m. Alumni panel I
3:30 to 5 p.m. Alumni panel II
Held in 500 North committee room of the State Office Building
5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Happy hour at Costello’s.
393 Selby Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55102
www.costellosbar.com
We’ll provide the appetizers. You provide the conversation.
Sign up here by February 8 to join us for this wonderful event!
Regional planning and policy brown bag with Greg Schrock (MURP ’00)
Taking Care of Business?Equity and Job Quality in Chicago’s Sectoral Workforce Centers
Thursday, February 11
12:45 to 2 p.m.
Room 184 Humphrey Center
Speed networking
Monday, February 22
5 to 6:30 p.m.
Humphrey Forum
Join us for the third annual speed networking event. After a short training session, alumni help students master the art of working a room and a job fair. Sign up here.
Public Affairs Student Association (PASA) Career Engagement Fair
Wednesday, February 24
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Humphrey Center Atrium
If your organization hires public affairs graduates, join us for the PASA Career Engagement Fair.
- No cost for organization participation
- Introduce your organization to graduate students and alumni in public policy; planning; science, environmental and technology policy; and public affairs
- Inform students about specific jobs, internships, projects, or volunteer opportunities or just tell them about future possibilities with your organization
- Free space to conduct interviews or offer group information sessions about existing or future opportunities
Register your organization here.
Washington, D.C.-area alumni/student event
Special guest Professor Emeritus Jim Jernberg (MA ’57) will be on hand to greet D.C.-area alumni and share one of his famous stories. Get this on your calendar now!
Wednesday, March 17
6 to 8 p.m.
More information to follow soon.
Regional planning and policy brown bag with Nathan Franzen (MURP ’01)
Solar Energy Development
Thursday, April 8
12:45 to 2 p.m.
Room 184 Humphrey Center
Humphrey School Public Leadership Awards Dinner
The annual awards program honors individuals that have made demonstrated contributions to the common good through public leadership and service and benefits a scholarship initiative of the Humphrey School Advisory Council. Ticket and recipient information is forthcoming.
Wednesday, April 21
McNamara Alumni Center
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Alumni board news |
Development committee
By co-chairs Brad Moore (MA ’83) and Jim Jernberg (MA ’57)
The primary responsibility of the development committee is to promote support for the Humphrey Alumni Scholarship program, formerly called the Alumni Tuition Grant Program.
The committee’s goals are to increase total giving to $50,000 (from $37,000) and participation from 341 donors to 500 contributors. Reaching those goals will allow us to fund 10 Humphrey Alumni Scholars. The committee intends to meet these goals by engaging with alumni in a variety of ways throughout the year. We look forward to the challenge.
Alumni relations committee
Chair Keith Butcher (MS ’98)
Our goal this year is to extend an open invitation to all alumni: you always are welcome here. Feel free to take advantage of the wealth of resources at the Institute. Make plans to attend an event or re-connect with classmates, faculty members, and other professionals that share a Humphrey connection.
We hope to facilitate such discussions by leveraging existing events to create “alumni only” activities. This may include unique access to some of the interesting speakers that come to the Institute. We also are working to help alumni get connected with one another. For example, in December we held a very successful networking event for those with an interest in issues that affect Minneapolis. The idea came from alumna State Senator Patricia Torres Ray (MPA ’02). She spoke to the group about the work that we can accomplish when we work together. She encouraged all of us to become more involved.
We hope to see you at an upcoming event. Let us know if you would like to help or have an idea that you would like to work on.
Nomination committee
Co-chairs Deena Anders (MPA ’05) and Sida Ly-Xiong (MS–STEP ’01)
The nomination committee of the alumni board is dedicated to building a vibrant and active group to support Humphrey School alumni and students. Committee members are in the process of identifying the needs of the board and recruiting alumni willing to share their time and special talents. The nominations committee will begin soliciting nominations for new board members in early February. Look for instructions via e-mail on how to nominate potential board members.
Student relations committee
Chair Eric Anderson (MA ’85)
This year’s committee has been engaged in helping alumni “stir the passion” of Humphrey students about public and nonprofit work. We will focus on a few key events and activities that give alumni the chance to influence both present and future students. These include a career fair, a day at the Capitol, and a speed networking event in February; alumni calls to highly desired prospective students; and one or two “brown bag” events that bring together alumni in particular sectors to discuss what they do and why they enjoy their jobs.
Please join us!
Next board meeting
The alumni board next meets on Tuesday, February 2, from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. in Room 215 Humphrey Center. Alumni are encouraged to attend.
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Career Services |
2008 Humphrey graduates job success
by Lynne Schuman, director of career services and alumni relations
We have finished the survey and analysis of employment patterns for those who graduated from the Humphrey School in 2008. Many thanks to Dave Walter (MPP ’08) for his help. Here are the overall findings:
With 86% of graduates reporting, 93.5 % said they were employed in their field of interest. An additional 3% had gone on for another graduate degree and 2% were not in the job market. Only 1.5% of respondents were actively looking for work at the time they completed the survey.
2008 graduates spread themselves across all sectors: government (35% all levels), private (20%), and nonprofit (29%), with another 15% working as academic staff in various universities.
The complete report will be available on the Humphrey School website in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we are collecting data on 2009 graduates, who are facing the most difficult job market in decades.
If you are a 2009 graduate who has not yet filled out a survey, please contact Lynne Schuman. We would love to hear from you, whether you have a job or are actively looking. Remember, too, that our the Office of Career Services is open to alumni as well as to current students. Your success matters to us.
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Humphrey Alumni Scholarship |
During the first six months of this fiscal year, alumni and friends contributed $25,187 to the Humphrey Alumni Scholarship fund, more than half of the development committee’s $50,000 goal. The number of donors thus far is 227, which represents 45% of our goal of 500 contributions by alumni and friends by June 30. Visit this page for an alphabetical list of alumni and friend who have made gifts to the Humphrey Alumni Scholarship fund since July 1, 2009. Individuals contributing at the Leadership Circle Level (annual gift or pledge of $1000 or more) are designated with an * before their name. The charts indicate the level of giving and the number of alumni participating by decade.
The purpose of Humphrey Alumni Scholarships are to provide tuition and fee support to:
- Reward academic performance and professional promise
- Encourage and enable second-year students to graduate in a timely fashion and begin their careers as public affairs professionals
- Provide financial support to Humphrey School students of varied interests and backgrounds
- Aid those students with special financial need
This academic year, nine students received Humphrey Alumni Scholarship awards. Many of them attended the 2009 Fellowship Breakfast last fall. See a photo of alumni who attended the breakfast along with the 2009 Humphrey Alumni Scholarship awardees.
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Just for alumni |
Calling all elected officials
Do you hold public office? The Institute wants to know! We plan to write a special feature on Institute alumni who hold elected office and want to include a broad spectrum of individuals. Whether you are a member of Congress or serve on your local school board, we would like to hear from you. If you hold public office and are interested in participating in the story, please contact Michelle Potter-Bacon with the office you hold and your contact information.
Link back
Helping to raise the Institute’s prominence on the web is just a click away. Among many factors, search engines count the number of outside sites that link to ours as a measure of our value as a public affairs education resource. If you have a profile on your employer’s site or on a social networking site like LinkedIn, be sure to mention the name of your degree and your alma mater. You can create a hyperlink to the Institute’s home page by linking to www.hhh.umn.edu. To find the link to your degree program, look here.
Can we profile you?
The Institute’s new website is our strongest recruiting tool, and alumni profiles are the most compelling argument for a career in public affairs. We would like to add profiles of graduates from all degree programs, working a wide variety of fields. For current profiles, see the Alumni in Action page. If you are willing to be profiled on the site, please contact Anne Mason to schedule a phone, e-mail, or in-person interview.
Getting the word out
Do you have colleagues, friends, or family members who would benefit from a policy or planning degree? Information sessions provide an introduction to the Institute and our programs and include presentations from staff and faculty members, as well as a question-and-answer period with current students. Register here: http://www.hhh.umn.edu/learn/infosessions.html.
MPP/ MURP Information Sessions
Thursday, January 28, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Monday, February 15, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, March 9, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, April 22, from noon to 1:30 p.m.
MS–STEP Information Sessions
Tuesday, March 2, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Thursday, April 8from noon to 1:30 p.m.
MPA Information Sessions
Tuesday, February 9, from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 11, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 14, from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Grassroots organizing training is coming to the Humphrey School
Learn the skills to organize from the ground up!
Camp Wellstone is an intensive and energizing training program that is open to anyone interested in gaining practical skills in progressive political action. More than 16,000 people have graduated from the camps since they began in 2003. The curriculum will include relevant information for all Institute graduates and students, including case studies and information on policy work, campaigning, issue-based organizing, and planning.
Training will be held at the University of Minnesota (location to be announced)
April 2, from 3 to 10 p.m., and April 3, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Cost for Humphrey Institue alumni is $20 (includes meals and snacks)
If you are interested in taking part in this great opportunity to both learn something new and meet others in the Humphrey community, please contact Erin Jerabek (MURP ’08) at jera0014@umn.edu or Jennifer Day (MURP ’08) at dayxx274@umn.edu.
2010–11 fellowship opportunity: Short-term Travel Grants (STG) program
IREX is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the 2010–11 STG program, which provides fellowships to U.S. scholars and professionals to engage in up to eight weeks of overseas research on contemporary political, economic, historical, or cultural developments relevant to U.S. foreign policy. The STG application is available online at: http://www.irex.org/programs/us_scholars/uss_info.asp
Questions may be addressed to the STG program staff at stg@irex.org or by telephone at 202-628-8188. Completed applications are due no later than 5 p.m. EST on February 2, 2010
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Around the Institute |
Global Notes blog
Current student Rachel Garaghty (MPP ’09) is the lead editor for Global Notes, a weblog produced by the Institute’s global policy area. Rachel welcomes your submissions to the weblog and comments on articles posted there.
Meet Kathryn Quick
Kathryn Quick will join the faculty as an assistant professor of leadership next fall. She currently is completing her doctorate in planning, policy, and design at the University of California–Irvine. Based on extensive field work in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Quick’s thesis on “Practices and Consequences of Public Leadership for Ongoing Civic Engagement” examines how public leadership practices emerge in different contexts, elaborating on the literature on collaborative governance and contributing to debate about the nature of leadership in public management.
The University of Minnesota Alumni Association
Margaret Sughrue Carlson will retire this winter after 25 years as CEO of the University of Minnesota Alumni Association. The search for her successor is underway. Read more about Carlson in the Winter 2010 issue of Minnesota magazine.
Support the U
The University’s 2010 bonding request received its first legislative review on January 14 at a hearing of the Senate Higher Education Budget Committee. The committee recommended that the U receive its full HEAPR (maintenance funding) request of $100 million, plus support for additional construction projects within the University system.
The next day, Governor Pawlenty announced his bonding proposal, which included $100 million in U construction funding. He recommended $40 million for HEAPR, plus $53.3 million for the state’s share of the U’s physics and nanotechnology building ($80 million overall cost) and $6.7 million for lab renovations ($10 million overall cost). The governor’s complete bonding package totaled $685 million, which is likely to be significantly lower than what legislators will propose.
It is vital that University supporters stay involved in the legislative process. The House Higher Education Budget Committee will hold a hearing on University and other bonding projects on January 26, and legislators in the House and Senate will move quickly to assemble and pass their bonding bills.
Please take a moment to contact your legislators about the U’s bonding request via the University’s Legislative Network. Other opportunities to get involved include the Legislative Briefing on January 27 and the student-focused Support the U Day event on February 9. Information on these events and other U advocacy news can be found at www.supporttheu.umn.edu.
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Alumni notes |
Do you wonder what your classmates and fellow Humphrey School alumni are doing these days? Click here to find out.
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Institute social networking sites
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Connect with other alumni and the Humphrey School through LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Find out more here.
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Calendar |
Keep informed about public events at the Institute. View upcoming events or sign up for the events listserv.
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Update your contact information |
Have you moved or changed jobs? Have you got a new e-mail address or telephone
number? We would like to know! Update your information.
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Past issues of News & Views |
Read past issues of News & Views on the alumni web site.
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Ways to get involved |
Interested in getting involved at the Humphrey School? Tell us how you would like to be engaged.
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Submit news for next issue |
Do you have news to share with your classmates? Please submit entries for the next issue of the alumni newsletter by March 22, 2010.
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