MPA My Personal Account

Time flies!

2012-03-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe it has been over a month since my last post! I apologize for my absence, I've been busier than I realized. Let's see, there's a lot to catch up on. First, the Student Spotlights page has been added to the MPA website! You can view that and read about this semester's two featured MPA students here: http://psc-cj.nku.edu/programs/public/masters/Student_Spotlights.php.

The last time I wrote, I was headed off to the NKU MPA-ASPA annual dinner with guest speaker Joshua Smith. The dinner was delicious, Mexican buffet, and Joshua was very entertaining. Joshua shared with the audience his experience and career path in local government. His story was humorous and inspiring. As a note to pre-career students, he could not emphasize enough the value of internship and fellowship opportunities. I was intrigued with the thought of local government after Joshua's presentation and have since taken advantage of a few opportunities that I have come across in the MPA program. First, I attended a Northern Kentucky City and County Managers Association meeting the following week to meet other leaders in the field and learn more about a career in local government. Second, I applied for a summer internship opportunity in local government. Keep your fingers crossed! It would be a great opportunity and I am really hoping it works out.

On February 10th, ASPA hosted Dr. Beth Honadle from the University of Cincinnati, who presented her paper "On Public Policy Analysis: Reflections and Practical Tips from the Field." Dr. Honadle's presentation focused on the distinction between doing academic policy work and doing policy work in the field. It was a very informative and interesting presentation especially since I am interested in a career in public policy.

The next week we had our first PASS event of the semester with a small group attending a Cincinnati Cyclones game. Despite the Cyclones loss in the final minutes, it was a really enjoyable outing. We're looking forward to the rest of our events this semester and hope to draw even bigger crowds.

The week after the Cyclones game, I attended the NKU Job Expo. I had a chance to talk to some great representatives from interesting organizations about the summer opportunities they had available. I got some good leads and feedback and have been in touch with a few places since then. Again, fingers crossed!

Now the real reason I've been so busy: classes. I had a midterm in Administrative Law Monday night (50% of our grade!). I spent a lot of time preparing for it and even though I wasn't feeling well when I sat down to take the exam, I do feel like it went pretty well. At least I hope it did, I guess I'll find out soon enough. Tuesday my group and I turned in our research design and are awaiting final approval of our survey so that we can begin collecting responses. Over spring break we will each collect 35 completed questionnaires for a total of 105. I can't believe we're already more than half-way through the semester and I'm looking ahead to what will be due the rest of the semester. As for Program Evaluation, we're more than half-way through, we're finished! All I have left is to turn in my final assignment, an evaluation of The Big Shake, due by Sunday at 6pm. I have an earlier personal deadline though because I fly out of Dayton for LAX at 4pm on Sunday! One assignment to go and I'll be enjoying five days of sunshine in California to visit my brother and a good friend from high school. I can't wait! When I get back things pick right back up with the NASPAA site visit team arriving for three days of evaluation. We're almost there!

Lots of links, lots to share!

2012-01-26T12:49:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I had my first of four Saturday classes for Nonprofit Program Evaluation and it went well. This Saturday we will be doing a site visit to The Betts House, Ohio's oldest brick house. Our major project for the class is creating an evaluation tool for their current exhibit, The Shake. I'm really looking forward to our one-on-one time with the Executive Director and a chance to explore the museum. Learn more about the Betts House here http://www.thebettshouse.org/.

In Research Methods we have continued to brainstorm with our groups. We've managed to narrow our topics and formulate research questions. My group has had a slight change of direction, but I think we're on track. Our proposals are due next Tuesday. In Administrative Law, I wrote my first case brief. It took me longer than I expected. It was difficult to condense a whole case onto one page. I have a feeling it will get easier though what with all the practice I'll have after doing them weekly.

MPA news: Check out the 2012 online edition of the MPA annual newsletter, The PA Nexus http://psc-cj.nku.edu/docs/MPAnewsletters/Newsletter_2012.pdf. Also, the Student Spotlights page should be up and running soon, so I'll let you know when that's available!

PASS news: We are happy to announce our guest speaker Roxanne Qualls will be presenting on March 22, 5-6pm. Roxanne is the former mayor and current vice mayor of Cincinnati and serves on city council. Also, she used to teach at NKU in the MPA program, how cool! More information will follow on the details of that event. Learn more about Roxanne here http://www.roxannequalls.com/home/about_roxanne.html. One more date to mark in your calendar, March 31, is the spring Service on Saturday PASS will be participating in. To stay up to date on PASS events check out the PASS page on the MPA website http://psc-cj.nku.edu/programs/public/masters/mpastudents.php or check out the MPA Facebook page for updates, you can find us under 'Northern Kentucky University MPA Program.'

ASPA news: Two weeks ago I attended my first ASPA-board meeting. Tonight is the ASPA-NKU annual dinner.The guest speaker will be Joshua Smith, who is currently the city manager of Hamilton, Ohio, and formerly the administrator of Howard (WI), Cedarburg (WI) and Monticello (IA). Learn more about Joshua here http://www.hamilton-city.org/index.aspx?page=502. I'll be heading over there shortly, and hope to see many of you there!

New year, new classes

2012-01-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

Hello, readers!

I am officially one-third of the way through completing my Master's! Last semester went well and I'm excited for my classes this semester, just two nights a week! I'm taking Administrative Law and Research Methods. I think both classes will be challenging but interesting, which is great. I'm also taking Nonprofit Program Evaluation over the course of four Saturdays in January and February. After Program Evaluation I will be finished with my Nonprofit Management Concentration and just have Public Administration core classes left. I'm moving right along!

Winter break was great, but I was a little antsy to get back to a routine by the last week or so. I hope everyone else had a nice break, too!

In MPA department news: the annual newsletter, The PA Nexus, has officially gone to print and will be available soon! Also, the department has decided to feature a 'Students Spotlight' page on the website which I'm really excited about. Keep an eye out for two new students each semester. I'll be sure to keep you updated. Additionally, if you're interested in being featured or recommending someone, please email me @ vogelgesav1@nku.edu.

Outside of classes, I have a few other things going on this semester that will keep me busy. I'll be assisting Dr. Olberding and Dr. McIntyre Miller with some research on community development. Hopefully, I will get into the literature review next week. The first PASS event of the semester will be a social event at a Cincinnati Cyclones game on Thursday, February 16, 7:30 v. Elmira. I can't wait! Not only am I eager to get PASS going for the semester, but I LOVE hockey games! We've also decided to participate in NKU's Spring 'Service on Saturday' in March and have plans for a guest speaker in the works. More to come on all the PASS activities!

I hope everyone's semesters are off to a good start and I'll write again soon! Happy New Year!

The FINAL Countdown

2011-12-08T10:26:00.001-08:00

To do:

1 paper
3 exams

The last month has been a whirlwind! I'm sorry I have not written. My days, and nights, too, have been filled with meetings, long hours at the library, and CAFFEINE! Although, I shouldn't complain too much because I did get to spend a week in Florida over Thanksgiving :)

In terms of end of the semester work, I've survived three presentations and turned in two papers. I'm almost there! For our group project in Volunteer Management, my partner and I got to reconnect with the Crossover representative we worked with and show her what we've put together for their organization. She was very appreciative and seemed to really like it. In all three classes, its been really interesting to hear about all of my classmates projects and the research they've done. Well done, everyone!

In PASS news, we'd like to welcome Lauren Stieritz to the leadership team! Lauren has offered to serve as secretary for 2012, thanks, Lauren! We have plans in place already for a service event on MLK day in January and a social at a Cyclones game in February. We also have a lot of great ideas about guest speakers, so be on the lookout for more information! We're very excited about our plans for PASS this year!

On a related note, I attended my first ASPA (American Society of Public Administrators) event last Friday, which was a networking social. About half of the group was from NKU, but I also met some new people and we had very interesting discussions. I'm already looking forward to the next event in January!

Another highlight of the past month was the Mayerson Awards Ceremony. Our class presented the grants Toyota had awarded to local nonprofits based on our recommendations. It was very exciting and I got to reconnect with Anne Gunkle from Cincinnati State, who I met on our site visit. There were other classes there as well who had worked with the Mayerson Foundation in other capacities such as direct giving models, or providing some kind of research or other service. Some of the speakers were really captivating! It was a great event and I really enjoyed hearing about everyone's experience.

So, six more days and I'll be on winter break! While I'm really looking forward to the time off, I hope to be semi-productive, as well. We'll see.. HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!

Brillianaire

2011-11-10T12:05:00.001-08:00

It's that time of the semester, things are getting exciting! (Read: Hectic!) So much has happened in the past two weeks. I survived my second and final midterm of the semester. Now just three papers, three presentations, and three finals to get through before the semester ends. Is that all??

In Foundations, I presented an article on policy implementation last week. Public policy is my favorite topic that we've covered and I think I may have actually discovered my dream career: working at a public policy think tank! Note: If anyone reading this has any information or connections in this field, I'd love to talk to you! I'm going to apply for summer internships over winter break, and ideally I'd find one at a think tank. How cool would that be??

In Volunteer Management we submitted out grant application evaluations and, as a class, voted on our recommendations to Toyota for funding. Several of my classmates will be going to Toyota tomorrow to present and discuss our recommendations. I'm very excited for them and can't wait to hear about their experience! We also had a follow up meeting with Crossover to discuss our volunteer program overview and plans for the term project. Originally, my partner and I had thought about a volunteer handbook, but after talking to the Crossover representative we're taking a different approach. Instead, we will be putting together a leadership plan for their team leaders who oversee the volunteer members. We have a lot of ideas and I think it's going to come together nicely.

Last week, I attended the Criminal Justice Career Fair where I helped provide information on the MPA program. I also squeezed in a little time to talk to the representative from Big Brothers Big Sisters (an MPA grad!) and the representatives from the FBI! Both were very interesting and informative. The Criminal Justice department has also been interviewing candidates for a new professor and I've gotten to talk to a few of them, all very intelligent and interesting people.

And last, but not least, perhaps the highlight of these two weeks are two updates on PASS. One, I will be serving as President for the 2012 year! I'm very excited about putting together some great events for the next two semesters. Special thanks to VP Stephanie Marston for offering to help. And second, we had an amazing guest speaker at our last event, April Gillepsie. April discussed personal branding, networking, and personal development. Some highlights: The #1 thing employers are looking for is differentiation, put your best foot forward on Linkedin, and her best piece of advice she had to offer was to talk to two new people each day. She also gave us a great reading list, sites with free resources, names to check out. If you're interested, comment below and I'll forward these on to you! I was so inspired by April's talk, I connected with her after the presentation and we went out for coffee this week. I conducted a pretty informal interview with April so I can write a piece on her in the upcoming MPA newsletter, and had a chance to glean some knowledge from her to apply to my own personal development. She also set me up with more people I might like to connect with, I am very appreciative!

One more thing! Thanks to everyone in the MPA department for the happy birthday wishes, and especially MPA Program Coordinator Beth DeVantier!

Group shot at the PASS event with April Gillepsie

Boo!

2011-10-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

The open house was a success! I was impressed with the number of people who stopped by the MPA table. It was great to talk to so many people interested in the program and I've even been in touch with a few since then. I'm always happy to answer questions about the program or life as a student, so if you have any, post them below!

The week after the open house I had my first midterm of the semester in Foundations, and my first in-class exam of grad school! Hint: The study group was worth it. If nothing else, it's helpful to identify what information goes with what question, make sure you have the all the material, and are clear on it. After that it was a lot of reviewing and quizzing for me. Like I said, it paid off and I'm happy with the grade I earned. I have an online, open-book midterm tonight in Managing a Nonprofit. It will consist of a case study of a nonprofit with issues and in three essays, we'll apply what we've learned thus far. Wish me luck!

Last week we had Fall Break, which was a nice two day respite from classes. It gave me some time to catch up (on reading and sleep!) and look ahead at the rest of the semester.

As usual, there's a lot going on in Volunteer Management! We turned in our Volunteer Program Overviews last week and are awaiting feedback. We also did our site visits to the nonprofits applying for grants from Toyota. Although I cannot mention names, I can say the visits were both informative and inspiring. It is going to be tough to make recommendations when all of these organizations are doing wonderful things for the community. Toyota's criteria will help though and I'm excited to get further into the process.

Last weekend PASS invited MPA students to attend the Newport Gangster Tour at half price! I already had plans to return to Wittenberg for homecoming, but it sounded really fun! On November 2nd PASS is sponsoring a guest speaker and holding elections for the upcoming year. I'll keep you all posted!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Week 7, check.

2011-10-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

This has been a big week in the MPA Program! On Tuesdaynight we were joined by MPA alumni for the Fall Reception. It was a laid backaffair with light refreshments and plenty of time for socializing.Introductions were made, including new professors and new MPA alumni PresidentAnita Hurst-Southwick. Dr. Julie Olberding made a few MPA announcements andAnita imparted some words of wisdom to current MPA students. It was a veryenjoyable time and there was a great turnout. Two hours later, I was off to myshortened Tuesday night class. Additionally, the MPA Program will participatein the Graduate Open House this Saturday from 10 AM-noon. If you’re in the areaand interested, stop by and see us!

Classes are moving along at a steady clip. I’ve been workingreally hard to stay abreast of my reading assignments. Unfortunately, I knowall too well from firsthand experience, that once you get behind on any readingit just snowballs and it seems like you’ll never catch back up. So I havelearned to treat it just like an assignment that has to be turned in at thebeginning of class and make sure it gets done. Speaking of assignments, Iturned in two proposals this week for research paper topics. In Managing aNonprofit I’ll be researching the CEO turnover at The American Red Cross andexamining whether it was due to Human Resource, Governance, or image issues. InFoundations of Public Administration I decided to go along with my initial topicof privatizing education and taking a closer looks at the voucher option. Ihave already found and reviewed several very good articles for this assignmentand I’m really looking forward to continuing this research. Next week I have my first midterm inFoundations. Our class organized a study group for this Saturday. I’m planningon putting in a good amount of time studying Friday (so I can be a productive, contributing group member Saturday!), then review with a classmate Sunday. Whew. Big plans forthe weekend!

In Volunteer Management I got to meet the representative we’dbe working with from Crossover. They are already doing a lot of really great thingsand we were able to pinpoint a few areas where my classmates and I may be ableto help them operate more efficiently. It looks like the two groups will bedivided between compiling a volunteer handbook and creating avolunteer skills and interests survey and conducting a subsequent pilot study. Both optionssound interesting to me and I am excited to be working with Crossover. The nextweek we were assigned our sites for the Toyota grant application evaluations.My group and I will be doing site visits in two weeks. Since we’ve beendiscussing volunteer motivation in class we took a Volunteer Functions Inventory,where I learned that I am motivated by values, enhancement, and career.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the most recent PASS event at Cincinnati Nature Center, butI’ve included photos below! I hope everyone’s October is off to a great startand I’ll write again soon!

Hello, readers!

2011-09-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

As I write this I am beginning my fifth week of classes. I can't believe we're already one third of the way through the semester! So far I've mainly been focused on keeping up with the reading, but I better start spending some more time thinking about those term papers and projects.

Tonight I am looking forward to visitors from Toyota and CASA of Kenton County (Case Appointed Special Advocates for Children) coming to our Volunteer Management class. We are working with Toyota on the Mayerson Student Philanthropy Project as part of the "indirect giving" model. We will review and evaluate grant applications submitted to Toyota by nonprofits and as a class, we will make funding recommendations to Toyota. The other visitors are part of our service learning two-part project which consists of a volunteer program overview and volunteer management proposal. The class has been divided into small groups by organization preference and there are four different organizations involved: CASA (tonight), Friends of White Water Shaker Village (last week), Future World Productions and Crossover (both next week). I will be working with Crossover, an outreach program of Crossroads Church addressing human trafficking in India. This summer I went to the Freedom Center’s exhibit on modern dayslavery and human trafficking and I was so overwhelmed and saddened bythis injustice, but I couldn’t even imagine how to get involved. So I am really excited about this opportunity to work with Crossover.

This week in Managing Nonprofit Organizations we're discussing Managing the Governance Function (the board) and up to this point we've covered Managing the Revenue Function (fundraising and budget). In Foundations of Public Administration we're continuing our readings on bureaucracy. Last week I wrote a praxis and gave a mini-presentation on Max Weber's theory of bureaucracy. Looking ahead, I've been thinking about my research paper for Foundations and I'm leaning toward researching privatizing education.

Friday night I attended the PASS social event at Hofbrauhaus in Newport. PASS (Public Administration Student Society) is the MPA student organization. Their goal is one social event, one service event, and one guest speaker each semester. It was a great opportunity to talk to classmates and meet other people in the program. I had a really good time and I'm already looking forward to the next event!