Posts in the Academics Category at Heller Admissions Blog, Page 2

Category: Academics (page 2 of 9)

A Day In The Life of a 2nd Year MPP Student

Ronunique Clark, MPP’23

Most students would probably like to spend their weekends either resting, catching up on their favorite hobbies, or hang out with friends. I, on the other hand, find myself trying to balance all of the above… and a little extra. Come along with me as I take you through my typical Saturday as a 2nd year MPP student, working as a part-time Support Staff member at Father Bill’s and Mainspring House in Quincy:

9:00am: After a very busy week of classes and extracurriculars, I wake up in the morning and start my house chores that I wasn’t able to get to during the week. A clean house is a clean mind!

11:00am: I finish up house chores, and then take time to go through any assignments that have an upcoming due date. When I’m planning out my weekend work, I attempt to prioritize my assignments by the day of class and deadline of assignment. I get started on some of the assignments.

1:00pm: I note whatever assignments I could not get to, in the hope that I can complete them during my scheduled shift (this is a hard hope), and then start to get ready for my upcoming shift.

2:00pm: I am all dressed and ready for my shift at the shelter. I spend time catching up with my roommates who (lucky them!) spend most of their day working from home.

3:30pm: I head out for work, as the shelter is about a thirty minute drive away from my home in Dorchester.

4:00pm: Arriving at the shelter, I greet the guests who are in line, waiting for check-in. The majority of the guests have same bed status in our shelter, but some are coming to receive a first-come, first-serve bed. I enter the shelter and say hello to my co-workers who were working the 8am-4pm shift, before clocking in for the day.

4:10pm: The people working on the 8am-4pm shift gives us, the 4pm-12am shift, a report of the day: do we have any guests who have received a warning or suspension? Are we out of any materials? Is the house laundry done for the day? Any major updates from management?

4:15pm: I check the bedsheet for any guests who may be entering the shelter late, have an approved night out, or suspension, and I make sure to mark this on the spreadsheet. After checking the spreadsheet, I go outside and begin checking guests in. Since most guests have same bed, they will tell me their bed numbers. For guests who are waiting for a bed, I ask if they are able to climb to a top bunk so I can allocate the proper accommodation. I write them in on the bedsheet by first and last name.

4:30pm: Official check in has begun. It should be four people on shift, but today there are only three of us. Another staff member and I start letting guest in pairs or groups of three. We check their bags, and ask them if they have any open food or water, any harmful items, or if they have any medication they will need to lock up. If they pass the full check in, they are allowed to enter the dorms, grab a blanket and sheet, and set all their items on the bed. For guest who have medication, it will need to be locked away in their med box.

5:00pm: Dinner time for guests.

6:00pm: First fresh air break for guests.

6:30pm: Guests are allowed to watch TV in the dining room, or they choose to get a head start on sleep. Staff spends this time in our office space, also known as the bubble, and cater to any guest needs: if they need any hygiene products or clothes, collect any mail, and guests who need to take medication, takes it.

7:30: Second fresh air break for guests.

8:00pm: Final medicine call for guests who would like to take their medications before lights out.

8:30pm: Begin filling out guest folders, taking notes if guests are in the shelter or not.

9:00pm: Third fresh air break for guests.

9:30pm: Guests assist staff with cleaning up dining room so that guests who were not able to receive a bed can sleep.

10:00pm: Lights out for all guests in the shelter

10:30pm: Final fresh air break for guests

11:00pm: We made it to the final hour! My co-workers and I normally spend time doing dorm checks and retracing the day spent.

12:00am: Overnight shift 12am-8am relief arrives, and my co-workers and I brief them on the status of day: do we have any guests who have received a warning or suspension? Are we out of any materials? Is the house laundry done for the day? Any major updates from management? After, I clock out for the night and head home.

WHEW isn’t that a shift? I bet you’re exhausted from reading all of that. For most, this may not seem like the ideal job to have as a graduate student and some may way want to know what made me agree to a job like this in the first place. As a public policy student ,I believe the only way I can make a direct impact and provide my support is when I am on the ground doing the work. Often times, shelter support staff are overlooked and most certainly can be overworked, and there is currently a shortage on these kind of workers. If a government is going to fund something, then people will have to be there to work it. These types of workers are should be thought about when implementing new structures, policies, and procedures, because we are the ones bridging the gap between the rules and the individual it was put in place to serve. With that being said, I will continue to place myself in positions that do and will make direct client to support services, because those are that is the kind of work that makes our world of social impact go around.

Sample Semester Schedule from A Social Impact MBA Student

February 16, 2023 / cmcquarters / 0 Comments

Calah McQuarters, MBA’23

Here we are, five weeks into the semester. The New Year seems like it was just yesterday, but somehow midterms are just a whisper away. With time racing by and deadlines approaching, I thought I’d stop and take a moment to give you all a glimpse into what it’s like being a second semester Social Impact MBA Student.

Let’s start with Tuesday, Managerial Accounting (required). “Calah! What about Monday?” Well, there are no MBA classes on Mondays this semester. However, for many of us, that day is filled with work, internships, future planning, etc. But let’s not get into that right now… Back to Tuesday. Managerial Accounting starts at 2:20 PM and ends at 5:10 PM. For this class, reading and homework are voluntary, but I would strongly recommend both! When testing rolls around (like today), it comes in handy!

On Wednesdays I have two classes: Social Policy and Management through the Lens of Equity (elective) from 9 AM to 12 PM and Financial Management (required) from 2:30 PM to 5:20 PM. The electives you choose to take are often just as important as the required courses, but not for the reasons you may think. While you are still learning theory and/or practical tools in your elective courses, these courses are also almost like a refreshing pause. It is a time to really engage in material you are passionate about. Not to say someone can’t be passionate about balance sheets and process flow charts, but I would much rather discuss intersectionality. Reading for different elective courses may be optional, but I have found that it is often some of the most engaging material. We are always more inclined to read what we are passionate about. As for Financial Management, this class provides multiple opportunities to engage in real world application. All of the opportunities are mandatory assignments (lol), but as I recognize my understanding of financial planning and decision-making grow, I don’t mind them too much (most of the time…).

Strategic Management (required) happens on Thursdays from 9:35 AM to 12:25 PM. This is where reading becomes a little more mandatory and also a little more intensive. Recommendation: don’t start the reading for this class the night before. You will not finish. The same goes for Operations Management.

Friday mornings are for Operations Management (required) from 9:35 AM to 12:25 PM. You can’t get to the weekend without going over process flow, capacity, and bottlenecks, right! Although they are content heavy, a particular highlight of the Strategic and Operations Management courses is the field project for each class. Do you have an idea of what you want to do post-graduation and/or the organization/sector you want to work in? The field projects allow you to get a head start. While it personally feels a tad daunting, I am grateful for the challenge and the encouragement to start thinking about the future. After all, I won’t be in school forever. *asks self if that is an option…*

A common theme for all of my classes this semester and classes at Heller in general is: you choose. You choose when, what, and how much to read and engage with the material given. Most courses only have an average of 3 to 5 required assignments for the semester, but outside of those, it’s up to you. This has been one of the biggest adjustments for grad school life. During my time in undergrad, I was the all nighter, study beforer, and never reader. My, how times have changed! Not necessarily because the amount of content changed, but because I chose to change. I knew coming into Heller, I wanted to learn and take advantage of every group project, individual paper, case study, and article reading. Now, realistically have I skimmed through a handful of articles while ignoring a couple others? Yes. But who doesn’t! It is all about balance. Doing what you need to do today so tomorrow isn’t too hectic. But if you choose to take a nap instead of making a spreadsheet, don’t worry. Lack of rest can cause a bottleneck in your brain and limit capacity. I learned that in Operations. 😉

Heller 2023 Winter Highlights

February 9, 2023 / amandamiller / 0 Comments

Every quarter, my colleagues in Heller Communications put out a new issue of the Heller magazine, and at the risk of sounding like a bit of a dweeb, I always read it cover to cover. Although I would say that Heller is better than a lot of workplaces at fostering community, there’s always so much going on that it’s hard to keep up with what everyone else in the building is up to. The Heller Magazine always does a great job highlighting interesting stories from students, alumni, faculty, and even giving a bit of Heller history. Some of my favorite articles from issues past include Beyond “Do no harm”, The Best Lessons I Learned at Heller: Alumni share stories about their favorite professors, and 2020 asks us: If not now, when?.

When I came into the office on Tuesday, I was so excited to see the Winter 2023 issue in my mailbox, and have spent the last few days reading it cover to cover. You can find the full accessible PDF here, but I wanted to highlight some of my favorite articles from this issue.

Championing Social Justice – Although all of this article, which focuses on the initiatives that Interim Dean Maria Madison has implemented since stepping into the role last summer, I though the section that focuses on Heller graduates’ career outcomes was particularly interesting. Of Heller graduating class this year, an impressive 98% were employed, pursuing graduate studies, or had received competitive fellowships within six months of collecting their Heller diplomas. Our Interim Assistant Dean of Career Development, Jasmine Waddell, attributes this in part to the connections students forge while at Heller, ““The entire community is dedicated to advancing the professional development and employment outcomes for our extraordinary students. It’s not just our office — faculty in all seven programs bring in employers as guest speakers to connect the academic content to career opportunities.” In my role in admissions, I often find that many students are interested in taking classes and even whole programs online, but I think that really ignores a crucial aspect of graduate school: the ability to forge connections. As someone who earned a Master’s degree through an in-person program and is currently enrolled in an online program: an online program simply cannot compare to an in-person program when it comes to expanding your network, and I think this article really underscores something I knew but hadn’t articulated to myself: how crucial forming real world connections is to getting ahead.

Stand-out quote: “Waddell’s team runs a wealth of programs, both virtual and in person, designed to connect students with potential employers. There’s an annual career fair, now offered virtually, and a Career Trek to Washington, D.C., among other initiatives. Through the MBA Board Fellows Program, MBA students are invited to serve as nonvoting members of nonprofit boards, giving them hands-on experience and a rare window into the inner workings of organizations.

The Power of Girls’ Education – This article immediately caught my eye as a graduate of a women’s college, and it didn’t disappoint. Learning about how Beatriz Pleités, MA SID’23, spent her practicum working as a development and communications intern at SEGA Girls’ Secondary School in Morogoro, Tanzania, was so interesting– and how amazing that she learned Swahili during an internship! This article gets a lot of points from me for the feel good factor, and also the adorable photos of the children at the school.

Stand-out quote: “I come from a developing country myself, but when one of the students sought my advice after her parents asked her to get married, I realized how different my adolescence was from theirs,” Beatriz says.

Yuqi Wang, MBA/MPP’20 : Fostering equity in Kendall Square’s business center – Kendall Square is one of my favorite areas in Boston, but I’ve never thought of all the work that goes into making the neighborhood so charming. Reading this article about the work that one of our recent MBA/MPP graduates does in her role for the Kendal Square Association was so interesting. Yuqi leads programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, corporate responsibility and community impact, including the Inclusion Drives Innovation program, which focuses on helping participants develop the tools to improve intersectionality. It’s always so interesting to learn about the impactful and interesting work that students go on to do after the graduate, and Yuqi is certainly no exception!

Stand-out quote: ““It all comes down to power at the end of the day, and programming and policy are two sides of the same coin,” Wang says. “When you’re trying to think of how [you] can be a change agent on an individual level, there is a lot of potential in programs to push people and companies forward to change policies. I find that very fulfilling and very cool.”

A Sample Semester Schedule

February 2, 2023 / bruscitti / 0 Comments

Brielle Ruscitti, MS GHPM/MA SID’24

As the new semester begins, there is always a adjustment period to the new courses and seeing all your classmates again. As a perspective student, one of my biggest questions was about how the courses were structured and what my schedule would look like. Now, as a current student, I am able to enjoy all the flexibility and course availability to design my schedule to address my degree requirements and personal interests. With that, as a dual degree student, I am able to take some of my sustainable international development courses, while technically being in my global health policy & management year. I made sure to account for my interests when planning my schedule, and now that classes have started, I’m glad I did.

This semester I am taking 18 credits, with a few half semester courses and two full semester courses. My course topics range from econometrics, to demography, to monitoring and evaluation. Generally, each of my classes meets for just under three hours, and this semester, all courses are in person. This has been great for collaboration and group discussions. My schedule has either a full day, with both a morning and afternoon class, or just a half day. Having half days allows me to work on projects, other assignments and readings for class. Most morning classes start around 9, and the afternoon classes begin around 2. Even with the longer time block, there is a break midday to hang out with your classmates, eat lunch and relax before your next course starts.

The coursework for each of course is rather variable and depends on the style, length and professor of the class. It is great that the courses often have a mix of individual and group projects, as well as assignments you create your own path for. For example, students are often allowed to chose a subject area of interest within a set of criteria. This helps keep the assignments interesting and see how all students bring in something unique to your learning experience.

Thus far in my time at Heller, I have learned that your experience is up to you and to take time to explore your interests, both in and out of the classroom. I make sure to have time for my extracurricular activities like volunteering and reading, so while each semester brings new opportunities to explore, remember to continue to growing outside the classroom too.

Ronunique’s Final Semester Schedule

January 26, 2023 / rclark / 0 Comments

Ronunique Clark, MPP’23

Welcome back! How long has it been? Seems like it was forever ago when I wrote my first blog post for the Heller Admissions Blog. I blinked, and now we are in the final semester of my Master of Public Policy program. “Oh yeah, you made it, you made it”, just like Teyana Taylor said. So with graduation being about 100 days away, let’s chat about the classes I will be taking this semester to wrap up the Master of Public Policy Program:

Capstone Seminar with Mary Brolin

This is the most important class I will be registered for in my entire academic career here at Heller. The capstone seminar course is designed for students to highlight the policy analysis skills that we have developed throughout our time here. We generally choose a topic that is relevant to our concentration; having a topic in close proximity with your concentration makes it easier to obtain background knowledge to the policy area and any relevant literature. After determining our topic, we develop action plans to help us conduct our research, literature reviews to diagnose our policy problem, and weigh out the pros and cons for potential policy solutions. By the end of the course, we should have a 25-30 page policy brief, and in the final week of classes, we have a oral presentation on our policy brief. What makes me excited for this course is the opportunity to showcase the policies I am passionate about and what I believe to be potential policy solutions. Bet you want to know what I choose for my topic, huh? Seems like you will have to come to capstone presentations to find it out 😉

Public Finance with Sakshi Jain

This course focuses on the facts and analytical tools to help us determine and understand the theory behind public spending. Some of the focus questions for this course are: what is public spending? When can public spending be too little or too much? Is public spending properly allocated among competing uses and levels of government? As we navigate these questions we will be responsible for producing two blog posts (will I ever be able to escape writing blogs?), a group presentation with a policy brief on a tax policy of interest, and a final funding proposal which will be an extension of our group presentation and policy brief. I am hoping to leave this class with more knowledge on how we decide on public finance, like: what measures do we use? How do we develop these measures? Who has the final say? I plan to be a sponge in this class and soak up all the knowledge that I can, because a public finance class for a policy student can either make or break you.

Social Experimentation in Children, Youth, and Family Policymaking with Dolores Acevedo Garcia

This course provides a graduate level introduction to the use of social experimentation methods in policy research. When I first saw that this course was up for registration, I actually said, “Ooooh!”. Honestly, who doesn’t love a course where you can learn how to critically assess policy content, design, results and recommendations, especially when it is social policy focused? We will cover the five basic elements of social experiments (research questions, experimental design, measurement methods, implementation, and interpretation of results) through case studies. We will be responsible for producing an in class policy review, which will serve as our midterm for the course, a non-comprehensive systematic review, and a non-comprehensive review of reviews. I feel this course will really challenge my critical thinking and writing skills in order to help me understand how to design experimental studies to assess the effects of social policies.

Child and Family Policy with Marji Warfield

We have only been back in school for two weeks but I would say this course is starting to become my favorite. The course is organized in three sections: (1) a focus on discussing the definition of family, family functions, and family challenges, in addition to examining the emergence of family policies and how families with diverse identities intersect with different human service systems; (2) family policies designed to support family functions assessing this through policy models on problem definition and policy solutions in conjunction with theoretical frameworks such as critical race theory and intersectionality; and (3) implementation challenges and dilemmas will be investigated through the use of a policy implementation framework and family policy themes. In the class we will be responsible for producing three written papers (a fact sheet, a problem definition and policy solutions, and policy implementation), a individual presentation, and participate in share sessions which are connected to our in class book clubs. What I enjoy the most so far in this class is how we are able to engage with the materials assigned and be able to have open and honest conversations about what families look like. We are able to connect to the material on our personal experiences but not for it to be overpowering of our end goal of effective policy making and solutions.

I am looking forward to wrapping up my final semester here at Heller this year with these final core and concentration required courses I hope to have developed a sustainably and transferable work portfolio. Will we make it to the finish line? Stay tuned!

Brief Reflections on my First Semester at Heller

December 20, 2022 / cmcquarters / 0 Comments

Calah McQuarters, MBA’23

This past Wednesday I submitted my last paper to complete my first semester of graduate school around 11:30 pm (yes, I procrastinated). After pressing “submit”, an overwhelming feeling of nausea came over me. Partially because I was second guessing if I listed all of my sources in the bibliography, but partially because while I had been clawing my way to the finish line of the semester since Thanksgiving, I didn’t expect it to come so soon. I hear more and more these days how it feels like time is always flying. Hours are turning into minutes and minutes to seconds. As I sit 4 months removed from when I first arrived in Waltham, I can certainly say it feels like I just got here yesterday. But now that readings and assignments are on pause until the new year, I want to take time to reflect on my learning experience during my first semester at Heller.

When I first began thinking about going to school for an MBA, my excitement was matched by my fear. Not having come from a business background, I didn’t know if I had the expertise needed to know the material I was going to school to study for. Turns out, I was right. Of course I didn’t! In my first class of the semester, Financial Reporting and Analysis, I arrived early, sat in the front, and listened earnestly to the professor, understanding 99% of what she was explaining. I left feeling on top of the world, ready to breeze through my time at Heller. Fast forward to my second class, Economic Analysis for Managers, I repeated the same process. I arrived early, sat in the front, and listened earnestly to the professor. Except this time, I promise she was speaking an entirely different language. By no fault of her own, no matter how many times she explained the material, the neuro pathways in my brain refused to allow the new information in front of me to sink in. I left that class, called my mother, and said plainly, “I think I’m dumb”, laughing but really wanting to cry. Over the next hour, my mother and I broke down that statement and I came to the realization that I in fact wasn’t dumb, I just didn’t know this new thing I never studied before. Now, you might be reading this thinking, “duh Calah! Of course you’re not going to know what you’ve never learned before”. But honestly, somewhere in the time between being accepted into graduate school and actually starting graduate school, I created this unrealistic expectation of knowing all I needed to know before I learned it. This semester reminded me that it is okay not to know everything (it’s actually unrealistic). Instead of obsessing over what I didn’t know in the beginning, I chose to be intentional and diligent about learning over time so I could be a little wiser in the end. I read, studied, worked with classmates, and talked to professors to ensure I was gaining all I could. It’s funny to remember that call, especially now that I understand the time value of money (look at me using econ terms 😉 ). But I am grateful for the patience and grace I offered myself then and in many more moments along this semester. To anyone thinking about applying to something you’ve never done or learned before, do it! The process may be scary and there will likely be moments you feel a little dumb, but what you learn and gain in the end is always so worth it! It has been for me.

I would be remiss if I didn’t take a couple of lines to acknowledge a source of so much laughter and happiness during my first semester: my cohort. I am grateful for the experiences shared, heartfelt moments had, friendships formed, and events planned (shoutout to the Boston Commons crew) thus far. And I am so excited to continue to grow together and make more memories over the next year.

One semester down, three more to go.

How to Choose a PhD Program

November 10, 2022 / amandamiller / 0 Comments

With a little over a month to go before the PhD application deadline (get your apps in before December 15th, folks!), some students are still finalizing which programs they want to apply to. I know I’ve written many blog posts about how to choose a graduate program, but to be honest, applying to a PhD program is unique in some ways. With that in mind, I thought I’d focus on a few things that you should be thinking about as you select which PhD programs to apply to, and ultimately, how to choose which graduate program to ultimately attend.

1. How you align with faculty. It’s certainly not uncommon to have research interests that don’t align perfectly with the work actively being done at Heller: if everyone was looking at how the same issue affects the same population using the same methodology, we’d all be doing the same research. It’s not uncommon for our students to have interests that don’t neatly fit into one of our concentrations (for example, students interested in Education Policy bridge both Children, Youth, and Families and Economic and Racial Equity), but still find plenty of faculty members to support their research interests. As part of your research into PhD programs, I would recommend browsing faculty in your program of interest and asking yourself, “Who would I want as my advisor? Who would I want to serve on my dissertation committee?” This, by the way, can be broader than just your specific issue: faculty who have worked with the population that you’re interested, or are using similar research methods, might still be a good fit for you, even if they’re investigating how a different policy problem affects that population. You can find PhD faculty as well as their areas of interest here.
2. What network you want to build. As you move through the program, you’ll be building a professional network, not just with Heller faculty, but also with your cohort and within your concentration. This is a network that can assist you not only while you’re in the program, but after you leave the program as well. So, when trying to choose a program, I would ask yourself what kinds of people that you want to be helping you through this journey and beyond. Are students doing research in areas you’re interested? Are they working, or have they worked, at places that you’d be interested in working at after graduation? Does the community seem collaborative and supportive?
3. The funding package. Make sure you read the fine print: At Heller, All full-time PhD students receive a funding package that includes all tuition and fees, the individual health insurance premium, and an annual stipend of $21,000 for the first four years of the program. One thing I would note, however, is that unlike many PhD programs, this funding package and stipend is not dependent on working as a teaching assistant or research assistant. Many of our PhD students, however, are interested in working as a research or teaching assistant (and I would say that most PhD students do work in one of those roles at some point during their program), but in those cases, students are paid directly, just like with any other job. Many other graduate programs may either a) not cover fees, which can be in the thousands of dollars, b) require you to work for a certain number of hours, which can inhibit your ability to work on other projects or manage your schoolwork, c) aren’t renewable/only for a year/is contingent on benchmarks that are unreasonable.

It’s easy to get caught up in a school’s prestigious name, a high ranking, or a too-good-to-be-true scholarship package. But a PhD program is a big commitment: you’ll likely be spending more time in your PhD program than you did in your undergraduate degree, so you want to make sure that it’s the right fit for you. Looking at these three things is a good start when it comes time to make this decision!

Social Entrepreneurship at Heller

November 3, 2022 / amendez / 0 Comments

Andy Mendez, MBA/SID’23

Even if you are not in the Social Impact MBA program, Heller students can benefit from participation in social entrepreneurship initiatives both at the Heller School and the wider Brandeis community. Social entrepreneurship events are a great form of experiential learning. They offer the chance to network outside of your cohort and provide a real-world forum for applying course concepts. I’d like to highlight the social entrepreneurship opportunities I’ve enjoyed the most.

The Heller Social Impact Startup Challenge

This is an annual event in the fall semester planned almost entirely by current students. This three-day event brings together Heller students from all programs to form teams, develop their ideas with the help of mentors, and present their business concepts before a panel of judges – many of whom are Boston-area entrepreneurs. I joined this competition in my first semester, which allowed me to apply the concepts I was learning from Financial Accounting, as well as Leadership & Organizational Development. I was still very new to the Heller community, so this event also gave me the chance to meet new people and form connections. I originally came to Heller just for the MA in Sustainable International Development program but was encouraged by alumni to add the MBA. After completing the Startup Challenge, I knew I had made the right decision.

SPARK

The SPARK program is run by Brandeis Innovation. In the fall, SPARK accepts applications for its pitch competition, known as SPARKTank. First prize and People’s Choice Award winners in the Heller Startup Challenge receive streamlined entrance into the competition. The SPARK competition differs from the Heller Startup Challenge in that it is open to Brandeis faculty, staff, and students. Judges have innovation as a top criteria. The pitch time is much shorter than the Heller Startup Challenge, so my team really had to challenge ourselves to be focused, specific, and deliberate about how we communicated our idea. Winning teams from SPARK automatically join the SPARK startup incubator. The incubator happens over spring semester. Teams meet weekly for workshops that help them hone in on topics like competitive advantage, customer discovery, and revenue generation. My favorite thing about SPARK was the cohort aspect. Our cohort included teams from the International Business School, a professor in the Asian Studies Department, as well as first and second year Heller MBA students. I learned so much from being able to hear what other teams were working on and what challenges they were working through.

Courses in Social Entrepreneurship

In addition to events, Heller students can also engage in social entrepreneurship through coursework. Students have the option of two courses – Global Social Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation – both taught by the MBA Program Director, Carole Carlson. Professor Carlson has recently authored an entire textbook with case studies on mission-driven ventures. In the spring semester, she teaches the half-semester course on Global Social Entrepreneurship, which highlights examples of social impact businesses around the globe. I really appreciated how the class encouraged us to be skeptical and question if everything that is labeled a social venture is in fact truly mission-driven. The course also emphasizes that just because a social impact is taking place, mission-driven ventures still must have robust revenue models and solid business plans to be viable. In this class, I was introduced to essential business tools for lean startups, including the Business Model Canvas and the theory of change. In this course, students actually form teams, develop a business idea, and present on their business idea as their final project. My team presented on the idea of an eco-grocery store in Bhutan that would reduce waste and create jobs for urban youth. The fall semester course, Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation, dives even deeper into these concepts and presents students with more domestic case studies. Other topics covered include competitive advantage, scaling, and financing social ventures.

If you are even the slightest bit curious or interested in entrepreneurship, I encourage you to dip your toes in and take advantage of these opportunities!

The Summer Internship Part One

October 27, 2022 / bruscitti / 0 Comments

Brielle Ruscitti, MS GHPM/MA SID’24

We are about halfway through the semester and while spooky season is fun, the spookiest part is starting my search for a summer internship. As a student in the dual degree (Sustainable International Development and Global Health Policy and Management), students must complete a summer practicum, which essentially is an internship. Students in this program are responsible for findings their own summer employment. In this and future posts, I will take you through how I am beginning my search and how the application process goes throughout the semester. I hope that for future readers this makes the process easier to understand and maybe gives you a place to start your own plan and internship search.

Step One: Look into the resources available and get familiar with them. Heller has an incredible resource in its staff which help students not only search for their practicum but also help develop your application materials such as your resume and cover letter. I been using resources such as Handshake and LinkedIn which can help you begin to get an idea of types of internships, deadlines, and different companies and organizations to work with.

Step Two: Gather and update your application materials. I started this week by dusting my cover letter and updating it to use for an internship application and made sure my resume was up to date. This makes the application process much easier as your materials are ready to go, and I can easily add position specific information to my cover letter and resume to make sure my application is submitted on time. I also made sure to reach out to previous or current professors to see if they can write letters of recommendation. This is especially important because you want to make sure they have ample time for what they need to write.

Step Three: Begin the search. This is the most daunting part: there are so many to look through on a number of different websites and platforms, the whole thing becomes overwhelming almost instantly. So far I’m using a couple different strategies to make the searching less overwhelming. I started by checking both Handshake and LinkedIn for a set amount of time and used a specific set of filters or search terms to find positions that I would be interested in. I make sure to save the positions I am interested in so I can set time aside later to apply. I have also signed up for some newsletters, both from Heller and other organizations, that post internship openings. I read those carefully and look into the organization hiring to ensure I want to apply. This process has just started and I am sure I will have feedback for myself.

My search and applications have just begun, so stay tuned to read as my process continues.

Meet My Cohort: Brian Stanley

October 20, 2022 / rclark / 0 Comments

Ronunique Clark, MPP’23

Are you guys still with me in this mini blog series of Meet My Cohort? I hope you are! Huge thank you to Hannah Wilcove for stepping into the admissions blog room. Next up in this series is truly one of my favorite cohort mates in this program. Super honored to be able to sit down and chat with Brian Stanley. Brian is 25 years old, from Clifton Park, New York, and in 2019 he graduated from Boston University (hey fellow Terrier) with a bachelors in Political Science and minor in Sociology. He is currently a 2nd year Master of Public Policy candidate concentrating in Environmental Justice.

What did you do before coming to Heller?

Brian Stanley, MPP’23

Before Heller I was working at the AIDS Action Committee, which was a branch of Fenway Health. I was working as a high-need, low-income HIV case manager for Essex County, basically everything above Boston. I had a case load of about 50 people and I was the only arm of Fenway there, so I was living in Salem for two years: I started this job in 2019 and left in 2021 before starting this program. In addition to this, I was also working in food service at the time, largely because being a case manager doing social service work with a bachelors degree isn’t the greatest pay, and living in Salem, you wouldn’t be able to live off just that. Aside from the difficulty in having to work two jobs, they were both fulfilling opportunities and both of these experiences informed my route today. It was different crowds of people administratively, professionally, and socially.

Why did you choose Heller?

I applied to a lot of programs and this was one of the few policy programs I applied to. I felt between the faculty and Heller’s messaging that even if the experience was not going to be what I expected it to be, that there would be people here with the same interests in environmental, social justice and equity. Prioritizing these interests in different ways, so even if the program wasn’t what I expected it to be I knew the connections and network I would build will still be a solid motivation to continue on in the program. Like the other programs I was applying for I did not think their messaging was on point enough, their diversity statements and program directors did not have that same inclusive language, and I mean it could all be a front, but I think people who would be attractive to these certain elements in a program are the people I would vibe with. I also looked at Heller’s institutes which demonstrated their values and that someone here wasn’t just doing the talk but also walking the walk. I felt like that was another green flag, once again even if the program wasn’t what I expected, I knew there were faculty, staff, and students doing the work is what I can vibe with.

What is your favorite class at Heller?

I hate to be a repeat to Hannah, but my favorite class was Policy Approaches to Gender Based Violence taught by Kaitie Chakoian. The course was really phenomenal: it broke down real complex human concepts around violence, recovery, and healing in ways that were both accessible and still human. I feel some of the other courses here have difficulty translating what it means to be worthy of justice, integrity, and human value to something we can understand. Then we end up in language of federalism when we could be in the language of human terms, but Kaitie really broke down concepts well, she was engaging, and she provide extensive feedback on assignments, which I think highlighted her excellence and commitment to excellence. Super phenomenal and probably my favorite.

What was your most challenging class at Heller?

Thinking about this I break into two categories. I think for me, first, it would be Practicing Social Justice Philanthropy: Purpose, Practice, and Problems taught by Celeste Reid Lee and Sheryl Seller class directly out of the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy. It was intellectually challenging because I did not know anything from this field: I did not understand how philanthropy can relate to social justice, or even if philanthropy could relate to social justice. I thought the speakers were phenomenal but I did find the course to be challenging because of the materials. However, the instructors from the Sillerman Center were amazing in the way they coordinated the course, feedback on material, and really broke down a lot of the concepts. For me, another layer of challenging is a course I am taking right now, which is Environmental and Climate Justice taught by Prakash Kashwan. It is actually a undergraduate class I am taking. The reason why this class is challenging is because its a undergraduate course, and the instructor is working to engage meaningfully with everyone, who are all from different academic levels, and the assignment structures are very different. It’s a lot of reading response, with week to week assignments, which in some ways it becomes regurgitating information instead of synthesizing it so its a completely different flow. He is integrating some elements of graduate courses such as take home exam options to synthesize material and the way he teaches information is wonderful and his linkages of decolonization, capitalism, and climate change is astounding. He himself is great but the structure of the course is what I find challenging.

What are your plans after Heller?

I think I’m going to work on deciding between a career in research versus a career in something on the ground. I do not have anything concrete yet I have been applying though! These are all opportunities to say the least, eventually I may want to pursue a PhD, but I have to really nail down what is worth doing with the limit time that I do have. So for me that is trying to figure out where do my moral and ethics align, because I know ultimately they align with community, justice, and equity, but I have to figure out my role in that conversation. It reminds me of the quote from Audre Lorde, “the masters tools will never dismantles the master’s house” and so like how do you embody that with a masters degree in public policy, right? I have no idea, but I am really excited to find out what that looks like and surrounding myself with people who are dealing with these questions.

Any advice you would like to give prospective students?

It is very critical to give yourself to give yourself as many options as you can because things that you decide are worth doing are worth doing and no matter what decision you’re making, you will think something else may be worth it differently. I think committing yourself to principle of what you want to do and what you want to be are fundamental to succeeding anywhere. So giving yourself the most options, applying to every program, speaking to faculty, and dealing with research is what I would say is the best choice. The worst thing you could do is do one thing and feel trapped. That’s how you lose drive in a program or drive in future decision. Give yourself space to fail, there is literally no one at this school or in this program that has been committed to something 100% percent and all the time. When it comes down to it, you need to be more committed to what those principles are, even if its just making more money in the future, you need to decide if its worth it. That’s my two cents.

Thank you Brian, for stepping into the admission blog room, it is always a pleasure to have a conversation with you! What a fulfilling way to now lead us into a brief intermission of my mini blog series “Meet My Cohort”, but don’t worry I will be back with some more of my classmates and their stories.

Heller Admissions Blog

Category: Academics (page 2 of 9)

A Day In The Life of a 2nd Year MPP Student

Heller 2023 Winter Highlights

A Sample Semester Schedule

Ronunique’s Final Semester Schedule

The Summer Internship Part One

Meet My Cohort: Brian Stanley

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