2019 DC Trip - Reception Keynote

Good evening everyone.

Michael Barr I'm the Joan and
Sanford while dean of the Gerald R.

Ford School of Public Policy It's my
great honor to be here this evening it's

wonderful to see so many alumni and

my 2nd time at this particular event and
it's hard to become something that I look

forward to a great chance to connect
with old friends here in Washington D.C.

and to our students some in the crowd
tonight it's great to see you too.

And so glad you made the trip and

I hope you're having a really productive
time in D.C. with the help of many

alumni in the room Jennifer
Elizabeth Johnson Peter Vasher and

their colleagues have put together 2
fantastic days of career events for

nearly 40 Ford school master students on
this annual D.C. trip and I just want to

say thanks to Jennifer and her team and my
thanks to all of our panelists we're going

to hear more about in just a moment
I'm also delighted to see here but

not yet
on stage Liz Gerber the associate dean for

research and policy engagement and
I'm going to say more about Liz Gerber and

her incredible impact on the Ford school
and just a little bit in addition

to Jennifer's team you'll see a number of
other foreign school staff here tonight

including 2 new faces Cindy bank
a long time member of Michigan's D.C.

office has come to the ford school
to be the associate director for

the program in practical
policy engagement.

She's right there in the back
the bright lights are shining great

right here in my eyeballs Katherine Carver
is somewhere here this evening

standing by the door I'm is our new
events and outreach manager and

I can also say she is a great
soccer coach of young children.

And.

The team is really wonderful I think
most of the other members of the team

you've had a chance to meet before
they're here on the staff are here to

connect with alumni and find ways to
recognize and celebrate your good work and

you'll recognize them by their little
badges on their coats in a few

minutes Liz is going to introduce our
fantastic lineup of guests speakers and

set the stage for our event on engage
learning a bit 1st I want to give you

some updates on what's happening back
at the ford school I'd call this

state of the school kind of talk about
somehow without Speaker Pelosi behind me.

Clapping.

It wasn't quite right let me
start with our wrap up of our

recently concluded victories for
Michigan campaign that's our fund raising

campaign our goal for the Ford
school was to raise $23000000.00 and

I'm proud and thrilled to tell you
that we far surpassed that goal

together we raised over $47000000.00 for
that campaign.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK.

You give a particular shout out
at this point to Sue Johnson and

Tony Wagner from the development
team who really made this happen and

to all of you of course in the alumni and

friends community of the Ford
school who were able to donate such

fantastic gifts to the school it made
a huge difference I also want to thank

my predecessor Susan Collins for
her leadership and energy on this.

Wonderful campaign let me mention
a few gifts in particular gifts that

will support our students research faculty
engagement for decades to come thanks

to a phenomenal gift from Ron and Eileen
wiser our newly launched wiser to play.

The center will make the Ford school
the premier place in the Midwest to study

foreign affairs and one of the top
centers nationally director John char and

his colleagues are recruiting new
professors a practice in international

diplomacy the host policy simulations and
establish a generous and

strategic package of new
student fellowships internships

international trips and more it's
a truly transformational opportunity for

the Ford school thanks to the tremendous
support from Phil and Cathy power in

the power foundation our new program in
practical policy engagement will make us

a national leader in building constructive
partnerships between policy leaders and

academia and creating value for the people
of Michigan and the nation Liz Gerber

is the founding faculty director of
the center which recalling P 3 easy

because the full name is a little
bit much and her vision is about

the importance of engaged learning and
Policy Research is essential to our future

another gift I'd like to mention
is one made by Hal and Carol Cone

who have established a new chair for
social justice at the ford school

in honor of house grandparents who were
killed in the Holocaust and are long time

Ford School Committee Chair Jim who Dacke
has established a new chair in health

policy these campaign gifts I know
some of them are deeply personal

some members of the M.P.P. class of 2008
are here tonight when their friend and

classmate Maggie Weston passed away
in 2014 tragically at the age of 32

her parents and out a fund in her honor
the fund provides a lasting tribute to

Maggie providing fellowship and internship
support to young people who are deeply

committed to the same kinds of educational
equity issues that Maggie champion so

well and so passionately in her lifetime.

Thanks to the good friend of
the Ford school Hank Meyer another

admirers of President Ford we
established the prestigious Gerald R.

Ford Presidential fellowship and
we have so

many other gifts I won't list them all
tonight but gifts from the tree and

family fun to establish new internships
and gifts from Jeff Shelley and

told her to establish new ways of
engaging in collective action for

our students you notice a theme among
these fellowships a new initiatives each

of them include a significant component of
Applied learning engaged learning that's

an integral element of our vision for
the future as Liz will describe and

these are just some of the many ways are
alumni and friends are supporting the Ford

school helping us to grow and thrive and
make a bigger impact in the world

briefly mention a few other highlights
from a very busy year at the ford school

we launched major new initiatives this
year on leadership and something we're

calling conversations across difference
helping to bridge the deep divides in our

country today we've we've we've
launched and will launch officially.

Starting with a 1st class next year a one
year master of public affairs program for

mid career professionals we've started
offering concentrations for N.P.P.

students in key areas from social
policy to international development.

And we remain a destination for some of
the country's most prominent policymakers

who come to lecture and teach to as
the foundation policy maker in residence

job at Ali and it was going to be here but
I haven't seen him yet

he's not lurking in the audience OK
job it is Todd National Security

last year and is coming back
again in the winter we have 3.

Foundation policy makers in residence
right now with US public health expert

Phyllis Meadows Fin Tech
expert Adrian Harris and

the honorable Sandy Levon
who joins our faculty after

decades of outstanding public
service the United States Congress.

And there's been more great news on
the hiring front over the last year we've

added terrific strength
Brendan Nyhan who studies fake news

Robert Hampshire works on smart cities it
water one terror and use of negatives to

study international development and
most recently I don't think we've even

actually formally announced this Charlotte
cover Yeah who's of comparative political

scientists focused on social policy
will be joining us from Georgetown.

I open tonight by recognizing alumni for
their financial contributions and

of course that's important for our school
whoever it's also just as important for

our alumni to give back in other ways and
we're really proud to have how active our

alumni really are you help us recruit
students for example fully 68 alumni

made calls to admitted students last
spring making a personal connection and

encouraging them to choose the Ford school
and I'm told 88 alarms have signed up for

recruitment this coming year so thank
you very much and let me clap to thank

those computer Thank you thank you Austin

very importantly and I'll say in front of
our students you hire our students for

jobs and for internships you serve
on the board you share advice and

connections both by e-mail and
during visits back to an arbor and

we're deeply grateful for that we need
your help and we welcome your engagement

I wanted to wrap up my opening remarks
tonight with a word of encouragement

I know Joe Davidson was planning to be
here but I'm not sure he's here yet.

Joe here no Joe is a master's
a La Mina journalist who

covers federal workforce issues for
The Washington Post and

he's had a lot to write about as you can
imagine the last few weeks and years

I was especially struck by his column from
last week describing the emotional and

psychological toll of the government
shutdown the disruption in trust and

the stress that results from having one's
professional mission threatened regardless

of whether you were furloughed if you work
in D.C. or aspire to a career in public

service you're affected by the current
political climate by the divisive and

corrosive rhetoric around public
institutions and public policy in general

the fact is your work is important
people believe in your mission they

believe in public service and they believe
in the analytical communication and

leadership skills we're giving to the
folks will believing our communities for

the next 50 years to come and so please
keep up the good work we're grateful for

you we're rooting for
you we're proud of you go blue.

Thank you.

And now for

the main event tonight we're fortunate
to be joined by one of Michigan's

most distinguished faculty members our
own Elizabeth Gerber she is the Jackie O.

Walker collegiate professor of public
policy professor of political science and

research associate at the Center for
Political Studies as well as the associate

dean for research and engagement Liz
directs our program in practical

policy engagement Petri and
services are soci Dean as I said for

research and policy engagement She's
a true partner with me along with

Associate Dean Paula Lance in leading the
Ford school and I really couldn't imagine

our future without her listener and
her doctorate at Michigan and

then spent 10 years on the political
science faculty at U.C.

San Diego we were fortunate to
recruit her back to Michigan in 2001

her influential research
addresses the critical and

challenging issues or regional governance
intergenerational cooperation and

policy to enhance transportation and
economic development for that work

among other things she was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and

I've just learned will be a D.O.J.
award recipient tomorrow.

This is one of the cool things you get
to learn is your dean every time I

see Liz in my office I learned some extra
cool thing that she is doing that I didn't

know anything about and I can plausibly
know how she does all that and so

much more She's an exemplary teacher and
mentor with a deeply creative and

innovative approach to education she
helped reinvent our applied policy

seminar course which enables our Master's
students to engage with a supervised

consulting project with
real world clients.

The A.P.S. is now the highlight of many
master students' experiences at the ford

school in a clear part of our
new P 3 initiative as well and

she's at the cutting edge using
collaborative simulation software and

exploring new approaches to online and
hybrid learning So

with that please join me in thanking
him in welcoming Liz Gerber thank you

but the.

You.

Know.

I just wanted to see yeah well.

I thank you Michael for
the incredible touching and.

You know exaggerated but they are a nice.

Introduction I really appreciate it and
Hi everybody I'm so happy to be here.

I was standing over there listening and
looking at all of these forty's of

different generation love all in
what you're doing in your career.

I honestly like got a little weepy for
a 2nd because I love the Ford school and

the reason is you and teaching you and
working with you and measuring all of you

has been really a highlight of my not
just my career but my life I would say so

thank you for that and
how wonderful to be here with all of you.

So as Michael said
the purpose of this panel

is to talk a little bit about how the Ford
school is thinking right now about

policy engagement in general and engage
learning as a core part of what we do as

a school and both how current and
future alumni can be involved so

how many of you in our current alumni
see how we did that so your alumni and

how many of our future alumni
actually want things so

there's a good I'm not going to ask you
for money but I am going to ask you to do

the kind of work that my friends do which
is help us with some of our learning work

that is so critical to to what
we do at the ford school so

let me just be clear when I'm
when I'm talking about and.

Learning here there are a lot of ways to
think about engagement policy engagement

and engage learning but
the way that I like to think about it and

many of us at the foreign school
are trying to focus on is.

Direct explicit and mutually beneficial
partnerships with people in organizations

outside of the university who play in
direct role in the education process.

So there are 3 things like the applied
policy seminar where we have

student teams working with real world
clients on real problems not just

term papers by real challenges that
the organizations are facing and

so and then lots of other variants on that
whether that's internships whether that's

short term research assistant ships
whether that's helping us with policy

simulations and that sort of thing but
it's all about the practical

art of getting stuff done
Phil Power who is one of the.

Generous donors that is supporting a lot
of the engaged learning work that we're

doing at the ford school he's kind of
a funny guy he's got a real personality

a big personality but he actually likes
to say we're going to get stuff done and

that's what we're learning how to do and
so because you know I can't teach you guys

that you've got to teach yourself
I can create situations I

can create opportunities but you've
got to do that learning with help and

so what we're going to talk
a little bit about tonight is

I've got 2 of our champion
Ari Plus our superstar applied

policy seminar clients Dave layer and
Eric BEINHART from.

The Justice Department respectively
talking a little bit about what they have

experienced as clients with us and
other universities as well

in the engaged learning process and
then I don't know how many excuse me.

Many of you probably know some of our
distinguished alumni who are also up here

who in their day at the ford school were
students in the applied policy seminar and

so we're going to ask them to each talk
a little bit about the experience that

they had doing in Gauge learning that is
working with the real client during their

academic time at the ford school and
how that's affected what they do now

I will tell you from my perspective
as a teacher it's the most.

Rewarding kind of teaching that I can
do because I well one I don't have

to stand up and lecture which I
don't really enjoy doing so much and

nobody really likes that either.

Lecturing probably not.

I don't but what I do love is
to be able to help students

think through problem solving and
problem solving on lots of different

dimensions both the city the client like
the hard problem but also all the soft

problem solving like how do I work with my
teammates how do I communicate this thing

affectively How do I manage the
expectations of the client that seem a bit

out of out of sync with what we thought
we were going to be doing and so

on so from my perspective I get to
watch that learning taking place but

what I'm going to do now is turn it over
and ask our colleagues to talk to you

about how that learning took place
with them and then at the end so

I'm going to come back and make a plea
to all of you about how you can help us

do more of the engaged learning work
that we're doing at the ford school so

with that I'm going to turn it over to
my friend and colleague Dave Lehrer from

the G.A.O. and then if you guys
I'm not going to stand up here and

go down the road so

as each one of you finishes if you just
introduce yourself and then I'll come back

out when I hear that they've agreed thinks
thank you I'm Dave Larry thank you for

having me I mean this is the director
of the Education Workforce and

Income Security Group A G.A.O. for though
you should all know what you know is.

Going to go on G.A.O.
is the investigative arm of

the United States Congress we do public
policy research on behalf of Congress

that is sourced either through direct
request from a congressional committee of

jurisdiction of mandate in law or
we also do some work under

what's called the controller general's
authority the comptroller general

the United States's is my boss Chris as
well others of all of you know people.

With respect to the gauged Why
should save my primary or if we're.

Retirement security
financial security for.

I've been to that work since about

the liaison for recruiting for
the University of Michigan.

At G.A.O. since 2004 as well and
not quite as long with the A.P.S.

program but for a lot of years now and

with respect to the program we
see it as a partnership we get

just as much out of the experience as
you all do going through the program we

start with a real world example
this is not some kind of

scenario this is a request that we expect
to be doing we've already received

from the Congress something we think that
we have in the pipeline that's going to be

a request very soon and so these are
things that will feed into the work that

you do in the applied policy seminar and
you will feed into actual published work.

Another thing that's very important
is that the experience be real and so

we want you all to have experience where
you understand what it's like to do public

policy research it you so
we're going to run you through design and

scoping exercise where you will scope
the work you'll look at the data sources

you'll reach out to experts in the area
and you will read literature and

academic research on the topic you'll be
providing us with your experience your

summary of that information and
then once we have agreed on that

methodology the way that that work
will be applied then you'll go out and

you'll do actually that work
you'll collect the data and

you'll analyze the data you look at the
data reliability aspects you'll go out and

talk to people who have real world
experience about the issues that you're

researching maybe individuals at
university I know they contribute a lot

as well I might be people at the state
level it might be at the federal level

could be folks who work in industry
depending on the subject matter so

you're going out and getting an academic
sorry as anecdotal information and

collecting that as well then once you've
gone through done your analysis you've

done your due diligence with respect to
the data and the information that you've

collected you'll begin to develop your
message it will bring you back on line and

will warrant work with you to develop
that message using the tools and

techniques that we apply in jail on all
of our work so we will ask you to develop

a message agreement document which talks
about all of the things that you've

learned but more importantly what that
means how you're going to talk about

the final results of your
work in your final product

will work with you to develop the final
product whether that is a presentation

that you'll do which is probably
the most common way to G.A.O.

either personally via video conferencing
or more recently a lot of students

have been traveling to Chicago and have
been doing the presentation from there and

some of the teams also in addition to the
presentation will also do a written report

and we're happy to work with you on
that as well from the standpoint.

Of how we would like to go obviously
we want to be real world but

we also want to be
a mentoring experience so

we want to work with you through
the challenges that face we in to do that

we schedule regular meetings I know there
are several people in the audience that

have worked on this project off and
they're by weekly meetings will check in.

We have Skype or web X.

and see how things are going talk about
you know the information that you're

learning to have any questions about
the approach that you're blind.

The many things said It is
a real world experience but

we want the experience to be the goal of
the relationship we don't want the end

product to be what's driving it because
what we want at the end of the days for

you to have the experience of what it
is like to do real world public policy

analysis that's going to
make a difference and

to get experience that you would
have frankly if you came to G.A.O..

In terms of the quickly the subject
matter just I'll pick for

most recent projects because I
don't want to leave anyone out so

these are just the most recent I'm looking
at it's a state sponsored retirement

programs retirement plan advice that's
given through a lot of manic we

called robo advisors Unisa PL
scholarship programs and

options to extend the labor force
participation of older workers so

I heard you to take advantage
of this class this experience

again we get probably more out of it than
you all do but we just we absolutely

love doing it and I believe there should
be a question and answer session and

as a part of this all well and there and
be happy to enter into your questions that

say that they're buying art and
I work for the international criminal

investigative training assistance
program also none of this it up.

We're part of the Criminal Division of
the Justice Department that we have and

then they have all business model and
then the O.J. pays for

everything else comes from

basically the State Department from
the International Narcotics I'm on for

some hero I now and
the counterterrorism bureau so

so if I said to say we need to
rely on a lot of inexpensive.

Talent to do what we do.

And so I'm a huge advocate of Capstone.

Our mission in this is really to

develop the capacity of a lot
of developing countries.

Law enforcement corrections and
forensics operations

deal to deal with transnational crime and

terrorism and do it in a way that
respects human rights and human dignity.

The way we do this is by promoting
sustainable as intentional develop but

let me go back quickly.

And 1986 when if you thought
was created our name made sense

because all we were doing was providing
criminal investigation training and

Central American countries
was a mile all solid or

under that was it just
trains that all changed in

of money well Noriega.

So if you thousands when and after the
US Army things and settled there and we

worked with the Panamanian government to
develop a new police force from scratch.

So that requires a lot more than simply
training it requires a lot of mentoring.

Technical assistance developing
policies procedures.

That build a framework around of
an institution that you can build upon

training is obviously a part of the but
it's all one part so

that really big is the tops
dedication to promoting sustainable

institutional development there's
a reason why I don't say achieves

sustainable in the visual development
because that's very hard to do and

there are a lot of outside factors that
determine whether that happens a lot of

them have to do with the host country well
the political dynamics in the country but

anyway so for years we were promoting
this sustainable one to do so

with everyone for
most sustainable was the decision about.

USA This is it everyone does it but
what does it mean what does it mean and

we wanted to provide
concrete example of what

is the tap means when we say that we
do when we promote sustainable and

fears over the so we started by
writing a basic concept paper and

if you have the the diagram the colorful
diagram there on the right.

That was basically what this concept had
for was about 12 minutes on laid out.

It was a good start but
we realized we needed much more so

the question to him How are you going
to do that with very limited resources

the answer was through capital.

Rove So
we partnered with this on one caps and

with the I'm not supposed to vote
Syracuse on to perhaps those and

the paper is the vide and

is the really fleshing out the this dire.

And the 4 the 4 analyses that
you see in the yellow section

in the middle there the 2nd part is.

Looking in 7 is he tough programs
that have successfully promoted

sustainable institutional Well that's
where Liz is capstone class was

played an integral part and it did a lot
of research a lot of primary research

all of our paths require a tremendous
amount of primary research reaching out to

is he thought program managers in
the field could be in the experts

we strongly believe the primary
research is essential to.

Project the 3rd and final section was
the monitoring and evaluation Sark.

We have not done a good job allows

our pro our programs but
fortunately no one else have either so

we decided that this was a good
opportunity to make a bold stuff and.

So the work of the 3 caps
the group was phenomenal.

This is the final product
which was published in 2018 by

the Justice Department and I don't I don't

I don't like to exaggerate it but I would
if somebody asked me to estimate how much.

The cab so worth I would.

I would say that I think the 3 tops
that we could not have gotten better.

If we had paid a consultant $100.00
that the dollars to do this for and

I've worked with a lot of consultants
are a lot of good things so.

We've done 26 caps more or less These
are live in a different universe and

it is we rely on taps for
evolving curricula or

is he done programs around the world for
strategic planning purposes.

For all sorts of research so
we're big believers and cops and

whatever distinguished caps a a lot
of a long life is here Paula.

But again I just want
to say this again and

less particularly for
being great partners of those and like.

Hi My name's Matt made last.

Week.

So I came to his brother
the student side so

I worked with us if you win anything
at all or even or slightly so

you know you want them or partners
in Michigan in your sports life and

how wheels all that route
by only resources around.

The suburbs around you know one
story that recently just got you and

I thought being from Michigan that we get
a 10 cent positive this is easy right in

Reno recycling like it's in our blood and
not really so

it turns out Michigan has a terrible
recycling rate look at this

the city of Detroit I at least I
can use 2015 they did not have

municipal recycling your the largest city
in Michigan I don't know what happened in

still you're spoiled a city like D.C.

We've got a giant blue bin you dump
everything and so we went into this and

we sort of assembled our crack H.P.'s team
working with the city of Lansing You know

we had the state a guy we had the Excel
guy I guess I was the guy with the car so

it was like my really important
all that we got the car for

there isn't gals I'm sorry other
Edwards has yet to deal with me.

But so every week we made our commute up
to the Lansing and then we went to some of

the townships and really the communities
around because there's a lot going on but

you know it's an interesting lawsuit comes
up with the township What's a county

What's a city things I really hadn't
thought about very much I just thought

the city whence I can understand that
there's a very wealthy Township that's

right next to it that
has certain stakes so

working with a really diverse group of
stakeholders we got a lot of insight.

And everybody's or a different you
know stake in this and it was.

Really valuable being a student being able
to see OK here's what the see when Think

things at the big giant in the room here's
what the wealthy township things as

someone who has the resources here is what
the county thinks is the largest land

holder in the area and sort of putting
all these pieces together with our team.

So we try to put together a kind of
a model this idea that if you had

a municipal recycling facility
that is yours or him as a shared

resource by all the stakeholders that you
might get to have some of the names and

so I remember we were driving down for our
final presentation so we spent you know

kind of throughout the area and

the day we're driving down I remember is
also the Ford school cookie day I don't

know you guys don't do that but
we had this thing where it's like you know

I was like piling cookies I was mopping
I got leave that day I'm like get like

a whole napkins were some like driving
I get like cookie like all over myself

like frosting is a kind of gross and I get
that only realize it until my walking into

the Lansing Mary's office on my own
I had like frosting all over my face.

You know like I was like nervous like
this is the worst case scenario and

we walk and like a group of other 6
of us and we do a presentation and

the whole time I'm just thinking my.

Harilal you know we we did a good job like
it reproduces deliverable We're up all

night working on it and then I looked
around the room and realized that half of

what we had accomplished was bringing
those people together it was a brain

the city of Lansing with Rudy and
township with him County and

that sometimes you have these sort of
extra Now these that come out of these and

so yes we produced a 30 page paper Those
read by you know someone hopefully but

I think the greater value we had was
getting all these people together and

give up talking because so
often that's lost and

this is something I carried my own
professional world so I work with.

That part of energy doing appropriations
work and a lot of what it is just getting

the right people in the room to talk
about this stuff and I think that A.P.S.

really helped me learn about that and I'm
really happy that this program exists and

I you know a supporter of it.

So happy to talk more about that but

sometimes I need to getting the right
people in the room going to college a lot.

Thank you.

Everyone can even my I'm trying to use and

I'm currently now in Hamilton and I can
project manager national coach order.

But me all of that with my abs and
how I got to that point so I remember

you know a lot of last words and
we get all the background in economics and

how we can develop the proof that they're
behind everything and then take the course

for applying it right and
I went into Greg Hall wanting to

do government insulting landing right for
him but this is like a rule that they have

where I can start you know getting my
money in the water a little bit and so.

I think one of the things that surprised
me about it was not that I could come

by project it was with a county veterans
affairs office and so we come in and

they're trying to better outreach and how
to reach out to more there are veterans

and their county and so there are some
clear ways that we could come in and

help more targeted approaches and some
better ways of communication strategies.

But that wasn't I thought that would
be the big part turns out that was

the smaller of the book the work we did a
lot more of it was dealing with the people

and how you interact how you communicate
back to a client and so that really

became apparent that this project would
know about just by the policies that you

can do but actually how you got to work on
the deal together to implement that policy

was really important but be aware and not
only that but understanding the culture of

an organization and how they interact with
each other so that was really helpful I

was actually able to parlay that into
my next job which was working for.

Us more for all of our strategies but they
were the client was the veterans affairs

so I got that job because in the interview
they asked me about the bear and

the very old very understanding culture
and being able to say of rank and job and

really understand and there is a learning
curve to not being able to ID by people

properly but how you live people and I
communicate that profit is very important.

One of the other methods I learned in the
project was that we didn't have a sales

manager team and that project manager
I still use some of those builds and

say I've built for my team I remember we
had a test that we did I can't remember.

The Strengths Finder and so you know
I've seen their projects go if you

have everything equally and argues that no
we're not going to do that we say What do

you like to view what's your strengths you
do that doesn't matter that 60 percent or

how we're going to divvy up and

actually everyone was
happier that way too and so

it's something actually bring to my team
is where your strengths where strengths

you want versus you can help and
utilize today.

Still find that in my current career so

I was in the Veterans Affairs after that
so I guess more about me after that so

I worked with burns very better and
better than management system so

when veteran started to go outside of
a network so I worked on the structure.

After that and got to the I.R.S. So that's
been interesting now with the budgeted.

Budget of going I've been a little
bit affected by that or so

I went through but I.

Started next election was an instructor
build the finance roads bridges through

getting more dead brought into the higher
us off we did country by country

$1000000000.00 organizations that
have international locations

there's actually not communication between
those countries and so to protect act ab

prosperity McCain channels and
I view structured have occasioned.

My work on a strategy and
I'm currently on web application so

I've got all of you to go to Iraq that go
back I count you can actually log in and.

Vote direct any money straight
there we all have identical

identity theft verification and
so on and like that.

But it's a great group projects and
this will work if they were priest Barton

generating billions of dollars so
it's really cool to be part of.

I'm Chris gone graduate
in the class of 2014 and

I enjoy the pipe of the seminar so
much but I did it twice.

So 1st I worked with an elf economic
development coordinator for the city of

Adrian Michigan and show you how real
world our project was it was sold when

we signed up doing a research project to
help them understand equity crowdfunding

attic how it could be leveraged as a tool
to help their local community raise funds

from within the communities support
local businesses we won projects

**** the Michigan legislature with
considering an equity crowdfunding bill so

instead of doing primarily research
about this topic we became

an advocate is trying to work with
the city Adrian and other stakeholders

to get the bill shepherded through
Michigan legislature about a lot of

networking relationship building
skills talking with legislators and

legislators and other stakeholders
the state of Michigan and

I was in a combination of that part of
the project was that our team actually

had the privilege of testifying in front
of the Michigan House Commerce Committee

about some of the work that we did
really rewarding experience and.

The bill actually was connected that
you're touring during our project which

is also varies of filling but we also
wanted to take the project a step further

because you know when a bill gets passed
that's great but what happens next

how people know what's the Reds How
does that actually get implemented so

the 2nd part of our project was
working with local stakeholders and

helping them develop implementation guides
and guidance for local businesses and

individuals who might want to invest
in their own local community and

then really prepared me for the real world
in taking a real world issue getting

flipped on its head right from week one
seeing an issue from multiple sides and

then she dreaded things within
a very limited period of time how

how to implement that into an actual
solution for the local community.

And my 2nd project was actually
working with the G.A.O.

team they've actually been looking
at retirement security and

specifically employee coverage with
employer sponsored retirement plans so

it was a very different and then the 1st
project a very data intensive and I

think Dave scription was right on talking
to a lot of stakeholders understanding and

researching the available data sources
working with the data sources working with

the G.A.O. experts understanding their
process taking a very broad subject and

scoping it down into it
researchable question and

then executing coming up analyzing
the data coming up with our message

presenting our findings and producing that

So one way that that experience really
shaped my professional career is that I

now work at the G.A.O. Miami Senior And
also there are issues team and

I focused largely on human capital
management in the 2020 census so

this project really gave a great
insight into how the G.A.O.

works now every time I have
a new project I go there very

exactly the same process that we did
on that project we get a fairly broad

topic we break it down into research a
question we think about the methods about

how we'll answer that question we
do the research take some time and

then we come back develop our message and
produce our report so it was a very.

It's very rewarding experience and
really showed.

What work was like at the G 8.

Thank you.

Thank you thank you yes hi

my name is Claire Hutchinson I
am also in the class of 2014 and

I'm currently on the corporate affairs
team at Humana so I also fell in the same

camp as Chris in that I left my A.P.'s
project so much that I did it twice.

And I worked with a team that worked
with the heating warm fund which is in

Detroit and it's a nonprofit that we're
taught provides utility assistance for

low income families in Michigan and they
provide about 15000000 dollars annually

and so when we started our projects
they said to us we have tons of data

tell us what to do with our data and
didn't give us a lot of direction

they had lots of things that they would
a few Sigurd quote unquote databases or

data sets that they kind of sent our way
and said Help us understand our customers.

And part of the fun was that they
had a hub and spoke model so

they had one nonprofit agency that
works with about 40 different community

centers within the state of Michigan and
they were very focused on tell

us about the people that ultimately
benefit from our grants and

they were kind of missing the fact that
there was another step between them and

the ultimate beneficiary and
that was their community centers so

when we started kind of working on
the project we met with various

groups that were responsible for providing
grants directly to beneficiaries and

what we quickly learned was
the relationship between the nonprofit

organization thought and their community
partners was not very strong and

so when we were kind of working with our
client they were expecting us to come back

and say here's all the different
people that you serve and

here's how you get them engaged and
we kind of got to the end of our praja.

And we said no the message is really
you need to have better engagement

with your community centers soul
is really gave us a pep talk and

was like you guys can go and provide like
a message that isn't going to be great

Nobody likes to hear you have a partner
organization that's not happy with you.

So we went and
we kind of shared this feedback and

they were really receptive because it was
about the message of you know you want to

alternately serve people better but
we've missed a part here and

as part of that and their reception
to it we said there were 2 of

us my copartner is actually here
Christine Wagner and we work together and

said we're going to do another semester
and we're going to help you figure out how

you kind of build this relationship
between your partner innovations so

as part of that we went out and collected
actual data on the partner organizations

and we said you know this these
places provide quick funding and

these places help with tax assistance and
we basically were able to put together

profiles of all of the different services
that their partner organizations

provided and then they were able
to say this is the profile of

the type of services that our partner
provides and if we want to have a good

relationship with our partner we need to
know what our partner's actually doing in

the community so as part of that
we also provided a whole host

of recommendations as to how they could
improve engagement among their kind of

partner agencies and that range everything
from you know doing monthly call

of typing a newsletter that spotlighted
various different organizations and

following the issues that these
types of organizations would

be really in tune to to understand
the cyclical nature of their business.

So I think that in working through that
really learning from the you know if.

Not fun to deliver a hard message but
it is alternately going to be

most important and I think that
the that a lot of people set up here is

we started out on one path and we ended up
somewhere totally completely different.

And I think that that happens to all of
us in the real world like I think that

everybody can highlight lots of different
professional situations where you may take

a job and think you're one job is going
to be and you know your role is going to

be very specific and it's going to finish
where box that doesn't end up the way it

works at the end of the day so I think
that it was really wonderful opportunity

to kind of continue learning working
with people getting through the points.

You know difficult situations and working
with a wide variety of people at all to me

at least serve a client in a very
you know in a effective way so

thank you very much thanks.

Thanks.

Thanks for being.

Here and says it was it was really fun for
me to relive some of the good and

still enjoying moments and
all of those so one sees me thank you for

that OK I'm going to be extremely
brief for you future all alumni.

Another is current students.

Were there any of you for some of your 1st
years or are you all 2nd here so OK for

your 1st years take a P.S.
in the fall and I can't guarantee

what will happen because that's kind of
the nature as Claire said so well but

you will learn a lot and
it will be I think a memorable and

important part of your school experience
so that's for the 1st year students

to be out there in the world so

start thinking about
ways that you can work

with foreign school
students as capstone type.

Projects with students over the next few
years and when you get your good ideas

bring them to me and
Cindy who's fact here and

we are really excited to be able to
expand the both the opportunities for

A.P.'s and the number of students who
are engaging in them so that's for

her future alumni current alumni bring us
here projects as you heard from David and

Eric you know there are huge
benefits to having students banding

a dozen we working from their
perspective a little bit

outside of the day to day they can take a
step back see things that you might not be

able to see at capacity and
ideas and energy and

we can create these really great
experiences so please contact me anytime.

And I would love to talk even if you
don't have a fully fleshed out idea

if you think you have a good idea for
anybody else project I don't even want to

say what a good idea is because they
can be so many different things but

if it's something that's important to your
organization that you think some students

can productively work on and help you with
come and talk to me about them OK or.

Right so I'm worried at the time but
we've got a reception Where's Elizabeth.

Room Can we have just
questions you think Peter and

OK All right so
let's take if anybody has questions for

the panelists that you'd like to ask now
and again well we're heading out for

a reception after by any questions
anybody have any questions.

How about how in the world did that
bill become a law in glass then like 8

weeks out that my fascination I don't
know if I had much to do with that.

It was a good bit just we're just bringing
a lot of stakeholders together and

really getting people to see
the value from all sides.

Like like Matt said bringing the same.

Mark on our.

Party you know.

That's good I don't I don't
think that existed 4 years ago.

But enough to me or.

Not I am.

Sure that you know this very
seriously I have cited your budget

you know that we have no money but
we can do what I am but.

I didn't know along with when we started
this program a been there for fear.

That a pretty good idea of what.

What our priorities were and
I talked with our director you know are.

Saying your.

Dog was out of.

This thought so.

Fortunate to me it was
another great faculty.

They're very creative and whose those
centers of very loose creativity

the office that I work at a CIO The
Education Workforce of income security

team education the big part of that and
my boss has children that went to

the University of Michigan to remember the
football team have played in Ann Arbor and

you know it was a very easy sell for
her to bring these projects and after she

saw them cycle through a couple of times
then it wasn't even a question anymore so

it's a system now that we haven't
played to be able to have this on an on

a recurring basis and
sometimes in the fall and

again in the in the winter term so
it's great.

Say from from a faculty perspective
what I've seen him as the more engaged

the partners are in the clients
are the better the experiences both for

the students but also for the partners and
so you know nobody has time for

anything of course but it's time
well spent with the students and so

from the from my perspective in
just observing the dynamics.

You know once the once once
the organization meets the students.

It's it's a good thing like nobody thinks
amens time students what a burden and so

as Dave said you know both in the current
moment working with the students but

then also when the conversation comes
up why should we do this again.

They are there are huge
benefits on both sides so

sometimes getting your foot in the door
just sort of making the space for

it I think is sort of what
I hear your question.

However you can do that in
your organisation it's it's

it's it's kind of like you know
the 2nd date is easier than

the 1st state in this case because
usually the 1st date goes pretty well so.

If you've been considering tomorrow and
see.

Exactly how the class.

OK I believe it's time for
our reception so

thank you all so much have a wonderful
trail those of you mark Earth students.

I hope you learn a lot and
make good connections.

And for all of you a lot.

About me and keep in touch and
go a little.

More.

Those green lasers you know let me just
say as you go out you'll see there

on the tables there are a little tense and
say what's topping period if

you're gathered at a table you might find
somebody to get in the conversation around

that day but feel free to go
around talk to anyone you want to

visit with the staff of the faculty
with her along with other students and

I have a great time thank you.

Thank you Jacki.