Below is a transcript of our conversation with Professor Sharon Kukla Acevedo
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas, and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. Economist Paul Volcker was a former chair of the Federal Reserve, serving in that role from 1979 to 1987. In 2013, he founded the Volcker Alliance to address the challenge of effective execution of public policies and to rebuild public trust in government. From that came the NextGen program, working with colleges and universities. Last year, CMU was named the 27th NextGen partner. Sharon Kukla-Acevedo is a professor in the School of Politics, Society, Justice, and Public Service. I sat down with her to learn about the benefits that our students can gain from this new partnership…
What are some of the things you are looking to see develop out of the partnership now?
Sharon Kukla Acevedo:
Yes, you're exactly right. We have an opportunity to create some things. But one of the reasons that NextGen was so interested in CMU is that CMU already has so many of the programs and opportunities that they are looking to provide to university students. They liked us because we have a public administration program at both the undergraduate level and master's level. We have wonderful speaker series like the Hart-Milliken Speaker Series that focuses on doing good work in politics. We have the Griffin Endowed Chair. We have so many supports that they like to see already. And so, while we will probably create some of these classes, we already have many of them that they were hoping to see within the programs. And we have so many of the extracurricular opportunities that they're hoping to see in these programs as well. So, I think a lot of it will be trying to package these things in a way that makes sense to students to help them see that what they are participating in really is public service and how they can leverage those events to become more competent once they're hitting the public service like labor market after graduation.
DN:
What are some of the areas of study that either with the announcement of this or that you see could be coming into more of a contact or participation here?
SKA:
That's a great question. I get asked a lot, what does... public service entail and who are they talking about? And this is a very broad conceptualization. This is nonprofits, this is government, this is the private sector. So, it's truly any type of organization that has any public-facing component. We want to promote elements of leadership and advocacy and policy. And so, I see partnerships available with literally all majors on campus. I think the sky is the limit. I think that we will seek to partner with those majors that are trying to provide very applied, practical opportunities for their students that can really help them to be better prepared in that labor market.
DN:
Is there a timeframe, sort of a focus, or is there a goal that within two years, three years, five years, that we've got this formally formally formed program in place that students can come through.
SKA:
Yeah. So, we have one planning year that's been funded by the Volcker Alliance. So, we'll take that year to create a certificate that's aligned with the goals of the program. And it's always the academic piece at a university that takes the longest. And it won't be within a year that can happen, but we're hoping within two years we'll be able to do this. Right now, the stakeholders in the program, faculty like me, are deans in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. We are going to be participating this year in site visits to Arizona State University and with the broader NextGen group as well, just so that we can learn a little bit more about what these other 26 schools are doing in their programs what might work well for us, how we can track all of these wonderful opportunities, and how we can make sure that these credentials are being best conveyed, not only to our students and their parents, but also future employers so that they can see the value of this program.
DN:
Now with the Volcker Alliance and being part of the Next Generation Service Corps, Central Michigan University adding their name to the list of institutions across the country that are a part of this, and Professor Sharon Kukla Acevedo heading up this effort here at CMU. Very good to see you again, and thanks very much for sharing the progress with us, and good luck as it moves forward.
SKA:
Thanks so much, David.
