Student organizations at the Ford School

So advice I give to new students who arrive at Ford interested in student groups would be to go to every meeting, talk to as many leaders of student organizations as you can, to get a sense of why they exist, what they’d like to do for the year, and don't be afraid to put forward things that you would like the student organization that you're interested in to do. So, if you want to do and event about women in the workplace, suggest it to leaders of a student organization, they often are looking for new ideas, new capacity, new people to join the group and give them ideas about things to do. So don't be afraid to suggest something that you think should happen at Ford.

Being here at the Ford School there’s so many opportunities to connect with organizations of your interest. I’m a first generation student, so I had the opportunity to be a part of an organization called First Generation Fordies and connect with students from similar backgrounds as well as talk about my experiences and struggles here at the Ford School. And we also attend, you know, a bunch of events and symposiums through the Students of Color in Public Policy. We got to meet Reverend Jesse Jackson himself at a symposium, so being here, at the Ford School, you’re gonna have many opportunities to partake in organizations that are of in your interest and have the ability to connect with students from all different backgrounds

The first and foremost is I think it’s a leadership development opportunity, so I’ve gotten to learn about fundraising, learn about event planning through Charity Auction. The second is that it really keeps me connected to why I came to Ford so Public Policy Connects brought high schoolers here, and I used to work in schools, and so that was a great opportunity to sort of stay connected, you know, outside of this ivory tower academic world we’re in and really sort of the people that the policies that we’re talking about affect. And then, in terms of the Board Fellowship Program, I think it was a great opportunity to engage with the broader university community uh and also to um see what it’s like to be on a nonprofit executive board.

So during my first year, I was part of the International Policy Students Association as the first year chair. Um, and I was also a part of Out in Public, which is the Ford School’s LGBT student organization, um, and I am now chairing that organization. Out in Public is one of the many organizations that you can get involved with here at the Ford School. There are many organizations on women's rights, on domestic policy, on international policy, on energy, and on entrepreneurship. It allows us to take ownership of a lot of the policy issues that we’re really passionate about and bring policy-makers and advocacy leaders to campus in order to discuss these very important policy matters.