This post was written by first year student, Julia Warren.

My experience this first year was incredible to say the least! This journey so far has been extremely rewarding. The MPA Program at UNC-CH is truly exceptional, and I know I made the right decision by accepting my admission into the program. While attending graduate school is no easy feat, I was eager for a challenge academically. Getting my MPA is the best decision I have ever made because I can already tell it has helped me professionally for my future career.

My classmate Matt Begley had a similar experience when he stated, “When I first applied to the program, I only knew that I was looking to develop a career in public service. I did not expect to meet as excellent colleagues as I have and receive the chance to work and help as many different organizations as I have. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to attend the UNC School of Government, and I am excited to see where this path takes me.” – Matt Begley, MPA Candidate.

All of my courses this year were truly captivating. The course work is designed to be applied to real-world scenarios.  First year student Skye Allan stated, “The MPA Program has helped me take the practical knowledge I’ve gained working in local government and understand the framework and theories that make it all happen” .  Stephen Wright elaborates further on how the program is helping to interpret his experiences in the public sector. “Coming from the Lead for North Carolina Fellowship, the MPA is helping me take what I learned working in the field and breaking down and reworking it in the classroom. This is preparing me for leadership position in the future.” – Stephen Wright, MPA Candidate.

One of my favorite courses was PUBA 710 Organizational Theory taught by Dr. Willow Jacobson.  I learned so much from this course, and it introduced me to an excellent non-profit that I am eyeing for future work. This course requires a semester-long project in which you conduct interviews with an organization of your choice and write two essays diagnosing that organization based off of class concepts. Another course that I thoroughly enjoyed was PUBA 723 Human Resource Management, taught by Dr. Leisha DeHart-Davis. The material for this course was very engaging and peaked my interest with its collaboration requirement.  Our piject which you and a group of your peers worked together on supported a client of Dr. DeHart-Davis’ Local Government Workplaces Initiative. My team worked with Guilford County focusing on Employee Engagement.

The professors are all experts and practitioners within their respective niches in public administration. The environment in the MPA Program at UNC is unlike any other, and the expertise of the professors is unmatched.  As my classmate Alyssa Pacheco found, “The professors in the program are some of the most brilliant public service minds and hearts. I love that they push us to be better in not just what we learn, but what we do, how treat others, and support our community. That’s the crux of our field.”

Our cohort is nicknamed the “clapping cohort” as we are always cheering on each other, professors, and faculty. The atmosphere within the School of Government is the most supportive I have ever been part of. There are no rankings, and it is not a competitive environment like some other graduate schools. We all just want to see each other thrive and be the best public servants they can be.

This summer I will begin my Professional Work Experience in May at the Recycling Partnership. This experience will allow my to apply the skills I have learned in Analysis and Evaluation I and II.  It will also be my first time working in a non-profit, which I am very excited about. I am incredibly grateful for being granted this opportunity which may have not been possible without joining the MPA Program at UNC.

Current UNC MPA student Elisabeth Butler writes about her summer work experience with Race for Equity. You can read her first blog post here.

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While conducting my Professional Work Experience (PWE) at RACE for Equity, I was recently introduced to a tool developed by RACE for Equity called the Community Engagement Continuum (CEC). The CEC outlines a process for engaging community members in an equitable manner. The CEC focuses on engagement from a racially aware vantage point, and it incorporates aspects of Results-Based Accountability (RBA) and the Groundwater Approach into its methodology. My task in relation to the CEC is to take the lengthy 44-page document explaining the CEC and boil it down to two pages. The two pages will serve as a more easily understandable and accessible handout for clients or partners who are interested in learning about the CEC.

I find the CEC interesting because I feel that it is trying to shed light on a question a lot of organizations are currently grappling with. How do you engage community members in an equitable manner? For decades, experts and those with resources and power have dictated the course and flow of development, but now there are many who have decided including those who are impacted but such decisions have knowledge and perspectives that should be included in the decision-making process. This idea of giving community members a voice seems easy in theory, but it has proved to be challenging to put into practice. One of my supervisors even noted that most clients who are interested in the CEC are only in the initial stages of the process, few organizations actually are or have made it to the later stages. Even though community engagement is easier in theory than practice, I look forward to seeing how organizations overcome current challenges in creating sustainable and equitable community engagement processes.

In addition to discussing the CEC, I also wanted to bring up my experience of working for a completely remote company. Before I accepted the PWE position with RACE for Equity, I thought a completely remote job was ideal. A remote job would allow you to work from any location and is more flexible in work hours in comparison to a typical 9-to-5 job. This is not a critique of RACE for Equity, but, instead, my own realization that in the future I would prefer an in-person or hybrid job. I enjoy the flexibility offered by RACE for Equity in terms of work hours and location, but I feel a completely remote experience hinders some of the comradery and bonding that occurs in in-person jobs. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy working from the comforts of my home, but it would be nice to see my coworkers in-person now and then. It would be nice to know you at least have the opportunity to stop by your coworker’s office or cubicle to socialize or bug then about an email you had sent earlier in the week. As I search for a job in the future, I will keep this realization of mine in mind.

Overall, I have enjoyed my experience with RACE for Equity so far. RACE for Equity has been very mindful about giving me enough work to meet the MPA hour requirement, and I have been introduced to new concepts that I have found interesting. This PWE experience has zoomed by, but I look forward to finishing up my PWE over the next couple of weeks and taking what I have learned from this experience to future jobs.