UNC Master of Public Administration student Syrena Travis recently received The Hunt Institute’s John M. Belk Impact Fellowship. This honor is awarded to 14 outstanding students in North Carolina who are interested in educational equity and service in the state. Impact Fellows are placed in a 10-month internship, where they work with organizations toward increasing college access, completion, and workforce relevance in North Carolina.
Travis is a generalist in the MPA program and is interested in education policy in urban local government. At an early age, she learned how policymakers control the access, content, and quality of educational resources.
“Growing up, I learned how education is the key to escaping poverty and accessing social mobility,” said Travis. “However, obtaining a quality education is difficult for low-income students and minorities.”
Travis applied to the MPA program to develop the skills necessary for reaching her professional goals. With the leadership and analytical skills learned through the program, she hopes to ultimately remove the barriers that prevent students from receiving access to an equal and fair education.
After graduating from the program, Travis plans to work at the Office of Academic Policy and Systems in New York City’s Department of Education. Growing up in a rural area, she experienced different barriers to quality education. After moving to Brooklyn in the third grade, she said she found it increasingly difficult to catch up with the students in her class.
“I had to work twice as hard as my classmates to learn what I missed and to keep up with the material,” she recalled.
In her professional career, she said she hopes to close this gap in learning outcomes and work to provide a free and quality education to all students–regardless of their background.
As an Impact Fellow, Travis works with different education leaders across the state. She currently works with MyFutureNC to research effective methods of education attainment. Although the virtual nature of this semester has made her studies difficult, she thanks the professors, faculty, and staff of the program for being supportive and listening to students’ individual needs during this unusual time. The School and MPA program return this gratitude to Travis and happily celebrate her dedication and work.
“We decided we wanted to do something significant in our lives in gratitude for what the University has meant to us and our children,” said Richard Vinroot of the $1 million pledge he and his wife, Judy Vinroot, made in 2009 to the School of Government.
Forty-five years of close personal, professional, and public friendship provided a focus for that decision: the funds would be endowed in honor of Richard and Judy’s long-time friend, Robert W. Bradshaw Jr.
The Gift
The Vinroots’ pledge of $334,000 established the Robert W. Bradshaw Jr. Public Administration Fellowship, which fully funds tuition and expenses to attract the highest quality students to the School’s Master of Public Administration program.
They also pledged $666,000 to fund the Robert W. Bradshaw Jr. Distinguished Professorship. This endowment will support a School of Government faculty member who teaches, advises, and publishes in local and state government fields such as taxation, courts and criminal justice, health and human services, school law, and public employment. This year, this fund reached the amount needed to begin the next phase of planning for its use.
Why Give?
The choice to make a financial gift to an institution can be highly personal, based on investment logic or family tradition, connection to an issue, gratitude for education or service, or any broad combination of these considerations. Institutions such as the School of Government rely on gifts of every size and frequency in order to fulfill their missions.
The Vinroots’ gift decision was layered. They wanted to do something for UNC-Chapel Hill, where they met as undergraduates. Richard attended college on a Morehead Scholarship, served as class president in his junior and senior years, and played basketball for Coach Dean Smith. He graduated in 1963 with a degree in business administration and earned a law degree in 1966. Judy graduated with a degree in education in 1965. She was a class officer and cheerleader. Their three children subsequently attended the University.
The Vinroots also wanted to honor their friend, and Richard’s partner and mentor, Bob Bradshaw. When Richard graduated from UNC School of Law, he became “the first UNC guy” to join Bradshaw’s seven-person, Duke-populated law firm in Charlotte (the firm now has more than 100 attorneys). Bradshaw mentored Richard in his law practice, when he entered public life as a member of the Charlotte City Council, and when he served as mayor of Charlotte. Bradshaw also chaired Richard’s campaign for governor of North Carolina in 1996.
“Bob Bradshaw spent many years encouraging good people to enter public service and then mentoring them once they did so,” said Richard. “Judy and I can think of no better way to honor Bob than at the School of Government, where public service is the essence of the mission. It pays homage to Bob’s involvement in government and how strongly he felt about good government.”
As with most UNC-Duke affiliations, this one is not without a certain bittersweet twist. “Bob Bradshaw was a committed Dukie, and there have been generations of Bradshaws ‘over there,’” said Richard. “When we made this pledge, I loved telling him I had associated him with UNC forever.”
Bradshaw passed away in January 2012, but his legacy will be perpetuated through School of Government faculty who teach and advise government officials every day and the graduate students who become public service leaders in North Carolina and throughout the country. “The Vinroots are known for their support of good government and an ever-stronger North Carolina,” said School of Government Dean Mike Smith. “This gift is clear evidence of their dedication.”
UNC President Margaret Spellings will deliver the 2017 Deil S. Wright Lecture on March 31 at the School of Government. The event is free and open to the public. Nationally known as an education thought leader and public policy expert, Spellings most recently served as president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas. Spellings previously served as president and CEO of Margaret Spellings & Company, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, US secretary of education, and chief domestic policy advisor for President George W. Bush. Spellings is a graduate of the University of Houston, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. She also received an honorary doctorate and Distinguished Alumna Award from the university in 2006.
The Deil S. Wright Lecture Series is hosted by the Master of Public Administration program at UNC-Chapel Hill and sponsored by Fidelity Investments and the MPA Alumni Association.
MPA student Jon Cheek and his classmates are learning to bridge the military/civilian leadership divide, thanks to a new course taught by faculty member Charles Szypszak.
Allison Hawkins is a first-year MPA student with a passion for public service. Her father, Transylvania County Commissioner Mike Hawkins, says his commitment to service began with the birth of his daughter. They’ve learned a lot from each other.
Once again, the Carolina MPA program has ranked among the top 25 programs in the country according to US News and World Report’s 2017 Best Graduate School Rankings. The program’s ranking in the public affairs category improved in some of its areas of expertise including city management (5th), public management administration (16th), and public finance and budgeting (17th). The program is also ranked 15th in the area of environmental policy and management.
Save the date for the Carolina MPA 50th Anniversary Alumni Celebration on March 31, 2017 in Chapel Hill. We’ll have a great half-day that will include an educational event, the Deil S. Wright Lecture, networking time with students, and a celebratory anniversary dinner! Details are being finalized now.
On Thursday, March 8, the UNC School of Government will host a discussion on “Administrative Courts in the Polish Legal System” with Agata Hauser, PhD, a lecturer at the Constitutional Law Department of the Adam Mickiewicz University. Hauser’s research focuses on judicial protection of individuals by the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) and the European Court of Human Rights as well as interactions between the EU and the Council of Europe and application of the EU law by national courts of member states.
“This is a special opportunity to hear directly from a teacher and scholar in a country that has undergone and continues to see dramatic constitutional and institutional change,” said School of Government faculty member Charles Szypszak. “Hauser is among the brightest in Poland who daily consider fundamental issues that we often take for granted here in the United States.”
Hauser is visiting the University of North Carolina and participating in a series of events with support from UNC’s Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies. She will be speaking on Judiciary Reforms in Poland as a Threat to the Principle of the Rule of Law, 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 6 at the FedEx Global Education Center.
We all know that our MPA alumni believe in public service, so much in fact they are willing to spend their Saturday improving the homes and lives of low-income homeowners. Before the MPA Alumni Picnic, a group of 24 MPA alumni and students spent the day working with Rebuilding Together of the Triangle. Rebuilding Together is the nation’s largest nonprofit organization working to preserve affordable homeownership and revitalize neighborhoods by providing home repair and renovation services free of charge to those in need.
The original idea for the Day of Service originated last year with Justin Amos (UNC MPA 2006) when he was seeking a way to celebrate his cohort’s 10th anniversary. Justin said his cohort wanted to “find a group event that would symbolize the reason we came to Chapel Hill for graduate school to begin with: to serve the public.”
After the success of the first Day of Service in 2016, Justin was determined to open this event up to all UNC MPA alumni. Justin partnered with Executive Director of Rebuilding Together of the Triangle and fellow MPA alumni, Dan Sargent (2010), to make this event a reality for students and alumni. Current student, Andrew Cutler enjoyed the opportunity to meet alumni and work beside them. Andrew said, “The recipients were super appreciative, and I think the work we did made some kind of valuable contribution to improving their circumstances.”
Justin believes the Day of Service “perfectly encapsulates the reasons many of us chose to get a Carolina MPA: to serve others, to meet new people, reconnect with friends, and to make a difference in their community.” Dan encouraged alumni that live and work in the triangle to “engage their workplaces, faith communities, and civic organizations to help serve homeowners in their neighborhoods to ensure low-income families in the Triangle have safe, healthy places to live.” Dan hopes that the Day of Service becomes an annual tradition that continues for many years.
By Sarah Dickson and Jim Hemphill
On Saturday, August 12, 2017, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) honored the UNC School of Government with their Distinguished Service Award. Established in 1970, the award celebrates an individual or an entity that “has rendered a truly outstanding and distinctive service to the cause of improving local government above and beyond his usual duties or occupation.”
Dean Mike Smith accepted the award during the President’s Banquet at the conclusion of NCACC’s 110th Annual Conference, held at the Durham Convention Center. “This award is intended to honor faculty and professional staff at the School for all of their work for counties over the years. They deserve it, and so do many of our former colleagues. I’m humbled to accept the award on their behalf and heartened by the strong partnership we have both with the Association and officials at all 100 counties,” said Smith.
Other award recipients included county commissioners, former NCACC board leadership, and Director of NC Emergency Management Michael Sprayberry. Durham County Commissioner Brenda Howerton—a graduate of the Advanced Leadership Corps, which is one of the School’s premiere leadership programs—was sworn in as president of the Association.
Founded in 1908, the NCACC serves as the counties’ advocate before the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of state government. The School partners with the NCACC and the NC League of Municipalities to offer leadership training for elected officials through the Local Elected Leaders Academy.
For more information, view the NCACC’s news release or Dean Mike Smith’s blog post.
Photo courtesy Chris Baucom/NCACC.