On March 10, the Ford School student group Association of Public Policy for Learning and Education (APPLE) welcomed 29 high school students from the Detroit Leadership Academy (DLA) and Washtenaw International High School (WIHI) for this year’s Public Policy Connects conference.
Carmen Ye (MPP ’18), one of the PPC organizers, writes about the experience for the “Inside the Ford School” blog.
The goal of the half-day conference, she says, is to “educate high school students about the field of public policy and careers in public policy, and challenge them to think about issues in their communities in a policy-oriented way.”
The morning began with a panel on “What is public policy?” that included Talha Mirza (BA ’18), a graduate of WIHI, Charisse Wilkins (MPP/MBA ’19), and Susan Guindi, director of student and academic services. The panel was followed by break-out sessions featuring community scans to identify important local policy issues. The conference ended with a campus tour, which Ye believes was an important part of making the college experience tangible and encouraging students to pursue higher education.
For Ye, who is in graduate school “to encourage and empower young people of color to have a seat at the table,” events like this are the highlight of her time at Ford.
Ye’s colleagues in organizing the PPC conference were Kate Naranjo (MPP ’17) and Hannah Bauman (MPP ’18).