Thirty-three graduate students are completing in-depth public service projects this year 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 government and nongovernment organizations for public service projects related to education, health care, the environment and the fight against hunger and poverty, 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 240 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.”
Follow the link for information about this year’s Capstone projects:
Patrick Banks
Office of the Mayor (St. Louis, Missouri)
– Banks is developing the design of a new St. Louis network for successful charter schools to give students a viable alternative for obtaining a quality education.
Cory Biggs
Arkansas Attorney General’s Office (Little Rock)
– Biggs is researching the feasibility of a holistic defense organization in Central Arkansas to assist indigent citizens with legal advice and help them access support systems to address what has led them into the justice system.
Kim Caldwell
Office of Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe (Little Rock)
– As part of the No Kid Hungry Arkansas Campaign, Caldwell is studying Arkansas’s efforts to address childhood hunger.
Ratnasari Dewi
RARE Conservation (Arlington, Virginia)
– Ratnasari is developing a training module on positive deviance for staff members in Indonesia working with communities to find solutions for conservation issues.
Elrina Frost
Winrock International (Little Rock)
– Frost is conducting a needs assessment of local government officials to help improve service delivery and government accountability in the NUDEIL districts of Uganda.
Valerie Hendrix
Arkansas Office of Health Information Technology (Little Rock)
– Hendrix is informing Arkansas consumers about the benefits of the statewide health information exchange.
William Jeter
Delta Regional Authority (Clarksdale, Mississippi)
– Jeter is developing a new media outreach strategy to engage new partners, provide access to resources for Delta citizens and educate people around the world about the Delta.
Gralon Johnson
Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club (St. Louis, Missouri)
– Johnson is determining barriers of academic success for high-school-aged African American males to help in the development of a program at the club to meet their needs.
Lindsey Johnson
Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (Little Rock)
– As part of the Governor’s Committee on Health Care Reform Implementation, Johnson will help develop an all-payer health insurance database for the State of Arkansas.
Ben Kaufman
Timberland Corporation (Stratham, New Hampshire)
– Kaufman is determining the means of calculating the return on investment and impact for the social change projects at Timberland’s supply chain factories around the world.
Mircha King
Arkansas Land and Farm Development Corporation (Brinkley, Arkansas)
– As part of the Heir Property Project, King will help identify the ways that the African American agrarian community in Arkansas can use their property to create sustainable market driven businesses.
Sarah Leer
Argenta Community Theater (North Little Rock, Arkansas)
– Leer is developing a model for the new community-oriented space to engage diverse theater groups from around Arkansas in a significant event.
Mark Lienhart
Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau (Little Rock)
– Lienhart is creating a model to expand community involvement and programming centered on wellness and service to attract more young adults to the River Market area of Little Rock.
Jack Lofton
Our House (Little Rock)
– Lofton is producing a documentary film about the individuals served by the organization that assists the working homeless.
Mahmoud Mahmoud
Seeds of Peace (New York City)
– Mahmoud is conducting a needs assessment for successfully linking the work of two organizations that are developing youth in Cairo, Egypt.
Julie Meyer
Arkansas Department of Human Services, Office of Policy and Planning (Little Rock)
– As a part of the Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap Project in Arkansas, Meyer is conducting a literature review on effective practices and outcomes of drug courts and the populations that benefit from them.
David Monteith
Roots of Empathy (Toronto, Canada)
– Monteith is researching and reporting on a variety of strategies for increasing Roots of Empathy’s financial independence and self-sustainability in order to achieve their mission of creating a more caring, peaceful and civil society.
Adam Moreland
Georgia Center for Nonprofits (Atlanta)
– Moreland is developing metrics and communication channels to help identify the impact of the Center’s Nonprofit Summit on the nonprofit community in Georgia.
Rebecca Morrison
Frueauff Foundation (Little Rock)
– Morrison is evaluating the use of a space being shared by non-profits in Little Rock.
Jeerawat Na Thalang
Arkansas Coalition for Excellence (Little Rock)
– Na Thalang is designing a strategy for ACE and their nonprofit members throughout Arkansas to utilize the media more effectively for promoting activities.
Ivanley Noisette
Catholic Relief Services (Baltimore, Maryland)
– Noisette is researching water, sanitation and hygiene interventions for urban disaster settings in Haiti and educating organizational staff members on the results.
Erin O’Leary
Office of the Mayor (Little Rock)
– As part of the Cities of Service Leadership Grant, O’Leary is helping develop a service plan to utilize volunteers to meet the city’s self-identified need areas.
Ryan Ubuntu Olson
Unitarian Universalist – United Nations Office (New York City)
– Olson is assessing the needs of faith-based, non-governmental organizations at the United Nations regarding their LGBTI human rights advocacy efforts to improve functionality and partnerships.
Nathanial Owen
Arkansas World Trade Center (Rogers, Arkansas)
– Owen is completing a strategic plan for establishing stronger relationships between the Arkansas World Trade Center and business communities throughout the state.
Kate Raum
Welcoming America (Decatur, Georgia)
– Raum is conducting best practices research on refugee resettlement community integration for Welcoming America, which helps immigrants integrate into the social fabric of the United States.
Sophia Said
Arkansas Economic Development Commission (Little Rock)
– Said is studying successful rural regions in the United States to determine the key elements that will make regional economic development work in Arkansas.
Debbie Sellnow
Entertainment Industries Council (Reston, Virginia)
– Sellnow is determining ways to incorporate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education into entertainment focused on American Indians in the United States.
Hallie Shoffner
Minga Peru (Lima, Peru)
– Shoffner is planning the involvement of Arkansas college students in a Minga Peru initiative to help educate them on social change, women’s rights and the indigenous culture of Peru’s Amazonian region.
Anna Strong
Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (Little Rock)
– Strong is developing an Arkansas action plan identifying strategies, policies and regulations to help improve school-based health initiatives.
Becca Swearingen
Walmart Foundation (Bentonville, Arkansas)
– Swearingen is studying hunger relief efforts in Northwest Arkansas and determining ways the foundation can ensure that its grants are impacting community needs.
David Watterson
Music National Service (San Francisco)
– As part of the organization’s Musician Volunteers Program in the San Francisco area, Watterson is helping engage more musicians in serving in high-need settings to help strengthen communities.
Judy Watts
Public Works, City of Little Rock
– Watts is collaborating with Little Rock Recycles to conduct research on current trends in curbside recycling programs.
Latonya Wilson
The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation (Little Rock)
– Wilson is conducting research on outcomes assessment in the field of philanthropy and incorporating that research into the foundation’s procedures.
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