Twenty-six graduate students are currently completing in-depth public service projects across Arkansas, the country and the world as the final requirement in the Clinton School’s Master of Public Service (MPS) degree program.
The students are partnering with public service organizations on projects related to education, economic development, food security and social inequality, among other areas.
The projects are part of the school’s Capstone program, which requires students to work with community leaders to help build healthy, engaged and vibrant communities and demonstrate their ability to work effectively in public service.
Through the course, students have the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired during their time at the Clinton School. Students select their own Capstone projects and devote at least 250 hours of time to them.
“Field service is a major component of our program and the Capstone is the culminating project of the students’ experiences here at the Clinton School,” said Skip Rutherford, dean of the school. “Each project reflects on the individual skills and passions of our students. Capstone projects often lead students into jobs following graduation.”
The Capstone is the third project students complete during the two-year MPS program. Each project is overseen by a faculty advisor, and the students are required to provide a report and defense of their project to a faculty committee upon completion.
“From communication and leadership to research analysis and conflict resolution, students utilize a range of skills they’ve honed here at the Clinton School to complete the Capstone project,” said Marie Lindquist, director of field service education at the Clinton School. “We are grateful to the organizations who are partnering with us this year on these projects and we look forward to seeing the impact of the students’ work.”
2013 Capstone projects:
Todun Afolabi
Department of Health and Human Services (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Afolabi is working with the Division of Community Service and Nonprofit Support to assess the need for community service in the state of Arkansas and develop a strategic plan.
Jordan Aibel
Ashoka (Arlington, Virginia)
-To support social entrepreneurs, Aibel is strengthening the Global Curator Network and the strategic partnerships that drive the use of AshokaHub, the online platform on which the Ashoka network connects and collaborates to drive an Everyone a Changemaker world.
Nuno Almeida
National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice (Iowa City, Iowa)
-Almeida is investigating the causes for a disproportionate presence of racial minority children in child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
Stephen Bailey
Heifer International (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-To support this organization working to end hunger and poverty, Bailey is developing a marketing campaign designed to scale-up global impact and diversify revenue streams by using creative approaches to connect Heifer supporters with its projects and beneficiaries.
Russell Carey
University of Central Arkansas (Conway, Arkansas)
-Carey is researching ways to increase student diversity in honors undergraduate education to better serve marginalized student populations in Arkansas.
Maggie Carroll
Arkansas Voices (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Carroll is developing a creative outlet project for the children of incarcerated parents, which will facilitate the creation of photography essays by participants ranging in ages 10 to 18, on subjects of their choosing.
Laura Crosby
HIPPY, USA (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Crosby is conducting a feasibility study to determine if the HIPPY home-visitation model is an effective method to promote literacy at home for elementary age children.
Kelly Ford
Just Communities of Arkansas (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Ford is developing a creative writing workshop curriculum for middle-school youth that fosters an appreciation of cultural diversity and builds community while improving creativity, communication skills and self-confidence.
Leslie Harris
University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, Arkansas)
-Harris is developing a five-year plan to implement service-learning on-campus in cooperation with the University’s Center for Community Engagement.
Burt Hicks
The Business Plus Initiative, a USAID-funded project implemented by Chemonics International (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
-To help Mongolia improve its business enabling environment, Hicks is advising the Mongolian General Authority for State Registration on a transition from a paper-based business registration process to an online business registration process, modeled after international best practices.
Nathan Jesson
Arkansas Science and Technology Authority (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Jesson is researching best practices for bringing broadband access to Arkansas public schools and universities.
Katie Longino
Lotus Guesthouse (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
-Longino is developing employee training and marketing materials for the Guesthouse, which teaches business, hospitality and tourism skills to children who formerly lived on the streets of Mongolia.
Gina Lopez
Walmart Foundation (Bentonville, Arkansas)
-Lopez is creating a five-year business plan and social measurement model to help the implementation of Store for Good: Empowering Women Together, an e-commerce platform dedicated to selling products from women-owned businesses globally.
Stanley Luker
Hope North Uganda (Kiryandongo District, Uganda)
-Luker is leading a strategic planning process with management and staff of this organization that educates and supports young victims of Uganda’s civil war. He is also evaluating ways to help the organization most effectively utilize its agricultural resources.
Katie Milligan
Junior League of Little Rock (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Milligan is developing a program to train current and future community leaders to become active, productive and effective members of nonprofit Boards of Directors.
Papy Muntumosi
Responsible Sourcing Network (Oakland, California)
-Muntumosi is researching how to promote dialogue between the marginalized communities in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo and mining companies, and how mining companies can contribute to sustainable development in their host communities.
Eakpot Nimkulrat
Mechai Viravaidaya Foundation (Bangkok, Thailand)
-Using a democratic education model, Nimkulrat is developing a Grade 10 science curriculum for the Bamboo School that provides a free education to rural children in Northeastern Thailand.
Dylan Perry
Little Rock Urban Farming (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Perry is engaging the Little Rock community in developing a non-profit organization that will strengthen the developing local food system in central Arkansas through education.
Andrea Price
Arkansas Community Foundation (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Price is researching the intersection of community foundations, corporate philanthropy and nonprofits in order to get baseline information on how and why corporate resources are leveraged for community improvement.
Veena Rangaswami
Sujaya Foundation (Mumbai, India)
-Rangaswami is assessing the impact Sujaya’s English program is having on helping government school children catch up to their expected proficiency level and is building a database so that a student’s progress can be mapped over the course of their enrollment in the program.
Yana-Janell Scott
Arkansas Department of Human Services (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Scott is developing a strategic communication plan for the agency to highlight the services provided and facilitate communication between the agency and its costumers.
Sydney Shearer
Just Communities of Arkansas (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Shearer is creating an issue-based curriculum manual for this organization that works to build inclusive and equitable communities.
Britney Sink
Arkansas Foodbank (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Sink is evaluating five children’s programs to provide insight on each initiative’s individual impact and their use as a multi-intervention strategy to fight child hunger.
Christine Sumner
Sustainability Consortium (Fayetteville, Arkansas)
-Sumner is researching how laboratory animal welfare issues can be developed into sustainability performance indicators for Consortium stakeholders.
Jillian Underwood
American Civil Liberties Union (Little Rock, Arkansas)
-Underwood is researching the status of immigrants in Arkansas in light of current immigration programs, policies and police practices.
John Vollertsen
Democracy Corps (Washington, DC)
-Vollertsen is examining the effect that specific policies, messages, and strategies have on increasing voter participation and engagement in historically underrepresented populations.
Responses