Policy Seminar
The Policy Seminar is a central component of the Washington Program on National Issues (WPNI). The seminar’s purpose is threefold.
1. Bring together students from a variety of disciplines to study domestic and international issues of public policy and management.
2. Apply theories of public policy to a variety of policy areas, including economic development, criminal justice, climate change, tax policy, economic inequality, racial and social justice, foreign and domestic security policies and cyber threats. The course supplements readings and discussions with briefings by Washington-based experts from the policy world.
3. The course also serves as a bridge to the post-undergraduate labor markets. There are networking opportunities and briefings with professionals on careers, including law, nonprofit management, and campaigns and elections. The briefings identify the skills necessary to make the most out of your internship and succeed in securing a job after college.
The seminar includes weekly discussions of common readings, briefings on policy-related topics by experts and several writing assignments. The writing assignments include drafting op-eds, policy memos, short discussion papers and articles published in Wikipedia.org.