The Clinton School will serve as the South Region host for the inaugural Policy Solutions Challenge USA, a national competition among teams of students from U.S. schools of public policy, public affairs and public administration to develop innovative solutions to the most important policy problems facing the country.
The competition will give student teams the opportunity to present their analyses and recommendations regarding the same topic and be judged by a panel of professional policy analysts. The first- and second-placed teams from our region will go on to compete at the national finals in Washington D.C. during the third week of March, 2013.
This year’s topic will be “Responses to Childhood Obesity in the U.S.” Participating teams of three to five students will give individual presentations on Friday, February 8, and receive feedback from the judges. The teams will then have the opportunity to revise their presentations on Saturday, February 9, and the final public presentations and awards ceremony will be on Sunday, February 10.
Schools interested in participating can register a team online at http://PolicyChallenge-USA.org/. Below is a press release from Policy Solutions Challenge USA announcing the competition:
PRESS RELEASE
Policy Solutions Challenge USA is pleased to announce that the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service will be the site of the South Region of the Challenge on February 8-10, 2013.
Policy Solutions Challenge USA offers an annual policy analysis competition for U.S. schools of public policy, public affairs, and public administration. Every year, teams of five students from each participating school will be asked to use their policy analysis skills to propose innovative and feasible solutions to one of the more difficult problems affecting the United States at the national level. Results from the Challenge will be transmitted to key executive branch and congressional decision makers, and promoted online to encourage new thinking and legislative activity based on the analysis and ideas produced by the student teams.
For the 2013 Challenge, the topic will be policy solutions to childhood obesity in the U.S. Often termed an epidemic, the current rates of childhood obesity suggest that future generations of adult Americans will experience very high rates of debilitating and expensive medical conditions including diabetes and heart disease. These forecasts suggest a long-term decline in average life expectancy, reversing positive trends in public health achieved over the previous century and potentially increasing the financial strain on the U.S. health care system.
The first phase of the Challenge will be regional competitions hosted at five sites including the Clinton School. At each site, a distinguished panel of professional policy analysts will receive presentations from each team entered in that region, offer the teams a chance to revise proposals based on feedback onsite, and then make a final presentation to the panel. The panel will select a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place team for that region.
The second phase of the Challenge will a national competition in Washington, DC in the second half of March 2013. All of the 1st and 2nd place teams from the regions will be offered a place in the national competition. In Washington, DC, a distinguished panel of professional policy analysts will receive initial presentations, provide feedback, and judge the final presentations. At the end of the national competition, the panel will select a national champion, first runner-up and second runner-up.
In addition to making presentations, each participating team will prepare brief reports on their analyses. The presentations and reports will be available to the public through the Challenge website (http://PolicyChallenge-USA.org/) at the conclusion of the national Challenge.
Responses