Posted by DEAN SKIP RUTHERFORD – We graduated our second class of Clinton School students Friday. It was a wonderful ceremony in the Great Hall of the Clinton Presidential Center with President Clinton delivering the commencement address. Our graduates will be moving into some exciting professional opportunities including the World Bank in Washington, the Bridges nonprofit organization in Memphis and Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy in South Africa. One is planning to pursue a doctorate; another is working on a joint degree at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen Law School; one is contemplating an offer from a major foundation; one is opening an educational consulting group in Arkansas and another is startng a nonprofit in Kenya; Two will be getting married and are job hunting in Baton Rouge and Philadelphia, respectively. One returns to his pediatric practice at Arkansas Children’s Hospital where no doubt he will also be a major player in state health policy issues.
While we have our graduation festivities in December, the MPS degree is actually a two-year program (though it can be completed in 18 months) so some of our students will be completing their capstone (individual) projects over the next few months before embarking on their professional careers. Graduation also brought back about half of our inaugural class and it was good to see them. They are working across the state, the country and the world.
The 30 students in our third class have completed their first semester of work and they too are spending the holiday break all over the state, country and the world. Next semester, in addition to elective course work, they will be heavily engaged in their practicum (group) public service projects throughout Arkansas and will also be finalizing the specifics for their summer international public service work.
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