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An important component of the Stanford MPP Degree is the Practicum Project, which students begin during their second year after completing core courses. Multidisciplinary student teams apply their skills to a contemporary problem in a major policy exercise with a public sector client.

The 2013 final reports have been published, and they cover such diverse topics as California teacher performance, resource acquisition between China and Latin America, and security and energy needs in the Arctic.

For more on the 2013 reports, visit SIEPR Policy Briefs and a May 8th Op-Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Stanford Public Policy program has created a Facebook page, and we'd like for all students, alumni, faculty and friends to come on over and 'Like' us! We will post events, news, job openings and student announcements - a great way to stay in touch!

Recent Public Policy alumna, Sarah Flamm, co-authored a recent publication for the Migration Policy Institute on "The Economic Value of Citizenship for Immigrants in the United States". She currently works on the International Program and the Labor Markets Initiative as a Research Assistant for MPI.

Bruce Owen, Director of the Public Policy Program and the Morris M. Doyle Professor in Public Policy, spoke on 'The Costs of Political Corruption' at the Hudson Institute on July 18, 2012.  Please visit here to view the video in its entirety.  

Otis Reid, BA in Public Policy and Economics, was a 2012 recipient of The Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award. This honor recognizes distinctive and exceptional contributions to undergraduate education or the quality of student life at Stanford. The contribution may be made for such activities as curriculum design, program development, advising excellence, residential education, committee leadership, or extracurricular education.

Who do you think has more influence over the education, safety, health, welfare, transportation, justice, recreation and economic well-being of 40 million Californians? U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein or California State Senator Loni Hancock?

That’s easy: Loni Hancock.

How can it be that someone so powerful is so unknown? The answer is that few people pay attention to the elections that most affect their lives. In California and most states, those elections are to the state legislature.

Continue reading the Op-Ed (opens to Bloomberg.com)

Two Stanford students, ANDREW BLANCO and ANJNEY MIDHA, have been chosen as 2012 Google Policy Fellows. The program gives undergraduate and graduate students interested in Internet and technology policy the opportunity to work in public interest organizations at the forefront of debates on broadband and access issues, content regulation, copyright and trademark reform, consumer privacy and open government. Fellows work directly with senior staff members of a host organization. Only 15 fellows were selected from among more than 1,300 submissions.

Josh Freedman, Class of 2011, co-authored an article in the December 6 issue of Gastronomica titled 'Authenticity in America: Class Distinctions in Potato Chip Advertising'. 

The study uses potato chips to analyze class identity in food marketing because "you can't use caviar, you can't use pork rinds, you have to use something everybody eats and that's potato chips," said Dan Jurafsky, a professor of linguistics. 

More on Josh's research project, and its conception, can be read in the November 30th issue of the Stanford Report.

The Frank Figueroa Memorial Scholarship is intended to recognize and support excellence in public service by awarding a stipend to a graduate student pursuing a Masters of Public Administration in California, Arizona, Nevada or Hawaii. David Hoffert, currently in his second year in the M.P.P. degree program, was recently announced as the 2011-12 scholarship recipient. In early November he will travel to Southern California to accept the $2,000 award. Congratulations, David!

Mark Donig, Public Policy Class of 2009, recently co-authored an Op-Ed in Foreign Policy.  It discusses the opportunity for increased collaboration between Washington and Jerusalem by using Israel and post-Mubarak Egypt as an example.  Mark was a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and currently is a research analyst with a consulting firm in Virginia.