Schar School News December 2022

Meet Peer Academic Advisor Kennedi Wilson: Helping Students Achieve Success at Mason

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 19:21:02 +0000

Meet Peer Academic Advisor Kennedi Wilson: Helping Students Achieve Success at Mason Andrew J Schappert Mon, 12/05/2022 - 14:21

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Kennedi Wilson: ‘The peer academic advisors are students just like you and we're just here to help. It's what we love to do.’ Photo by Gerardo Valladares/Schar School of Policy and Government

Kennedi Wilson

Different academic units at ��AV provide students opportunities to help one another as peer mentors, tutors, and ambassadors. At the Schar School, students can become peer advisors.

Peer academic advisors like Kennedi Wilson assist fellow Schar School students with course registration and concentration/minor selection while also acting as a resource to answer questions they may have about the school or programs. Peer academic advisors help ensure students achieve scholastic and personal success at Mason.

Wilson should know her way around a course catalog: She is a senior, double majoring in government and international politics and Spanish while also pursuing an accelerated master’s in public policy.

“I've been a resident advisor for three years, and my experiences providing student support have been helpful in being a peer academic advisor,” she said. “Knowing the different resources, programs, and activities happening on campus has allowed me to help students like myself in reaching their goals, whether by answering questions or just giving advice on what classes would be a good fit for them.”

Sometimes she has to have that tough conversation and remind students not pick classes just to get an “easy A.”

“I encourage people to take classes they can take something away from,” she said. “Students should consider taking a class in a subject they are either passionate about or would like to learn more about.”

Wilson has office hours in the Aquia Building, the Fairfax Campus home of the Schar School, where she helps students on their academic journeys. One advising appointment in particular stands out.

“I had a student who didn’t enjoy their major and was trying to figure out what was best for them. I talked to them about what they enjoyed doing and what they saw themself doing in the future,” she recalled. “We worked out a plan and the student changed majors to public administration. Advising appointments like these are really fulfilling.”

Ann Ludwick, the assistant dean for undergraduate academic affairs who oversees the advisors, notes that peer academic advisors exist to involve upper class Schar School students who have a desire to help others with their college experience.

“We appreciate the student voice—we need to tap into that area of expertise, their experiences navigating at Mason,” she said. “We appreciate embracing these roles because it improves our advising and informs the way we work with students and the programming we can provide students.”

As it turns out, the advisor benefited from advising.

“Dr. Ludwick has been the main reason that I have been able to balance my two majors, a minor, and do an accelerated master’s in public policy all at the same time,” Wilson said. “She has helped me tremendously by bringing opportunities available in the Schar School to my attention and helping me make a four-year plan for class registration. So when I saw the Schar School was looking for Peer Academic Advisors I was excited to apply.”

Students can schedule a meeting with academic and peer advisors at the Schar School through NavigateMason or come to the Aquia Building, Room 335, for walk-in appointments.

The Schar School advising team is happy to help students with course registration, academic advice, or anything else. Wilson encourages students to send an email or schedule an appointment.

“You never want to go into something being uncertain if there are people that can help address any concerns that you may have,” she said. “The peer academic advisors are students just like you and we're just here to help. It's what we love to do. It’s what I love to do.”

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Schar School News December 2022

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Schar School’s Nonprofit Center Brings Major Research Project to Mason

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 20:25:47 +0000

Schar School’s Nonprofit Center Brings Major Research Project to Mason Andrew J Schappert Thu, 12/01/2022 - 15:25

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Alan J. Abramson

Mirae Kim

Stefan Toepler

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Alan Abramson: ‘Tapping into these additional data sources will allow for a more robust understanding of the nonprofit sector’s economic role, the demographics of the nonprofit workforce, and federal funding of nonprofit organizations.’

A 2017 study revealed that one in every 10 workers in the U.S. works for a nonprofit organization, indicating that the nonprofit industry is larger than all branches of manufacturing combined. Only retail and the hospitality and food service industries are larger.

That breakthrough study—as well as other important reports on the nonprofit sector—was the result of work performed by the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit-Economic Data Project (JHU-NED). With recent death of project leader Lester Salamon, the project will continue under the leadership of the Schar School of Policy and Government’s Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise at ��AV.

The project, now called the ��AV-Nonprofit Employment Data Project (GMU-NED; see it here), continues to be supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The project will be led by Alan Abramson, director of the Center on Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Social Enterprise, in collaboration with center faculty members Stefan Toepler and Mirae Kim.

“We are honored to continue this important work pioneered by Dr. Salamon and his colleagues, S. Wojciech Sokolowski, Stephanie Lessans Geller, and Chelsea Newhouse,” Abramson said. “They tapped a crucial new source of data on nonprofit employment and wages embedded in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages [QCEW].

“The data from the QCEW are unique in that they are systematically collected for all sectors of the economy, making data on nonprofits directly comparable to data on for-profits and government employers. This had never been done and the nonprofit sector continues to benefit from this vital information.”

The JHU-NED team’s work tracked how nonprofits compare to their for-profit counterparts in key fields, including health care, education, social services, and the arts.

“This changed the understanding of the importance of these critical institutions,” said Abramson. “More recently, their work during the COVID-19 pandemic to highlight the impact of the crisis on these institutions provided a unique resource, which in turn, helped lead to a number of important policy changes that supported nonprofit recovery.”

Abramson added that the GMU-NED project “will not only continue the work of the JHU project, but will build on it, bringing the unique expertise of the Schar School’s center’s faculty and staff to bear to broaden and enhance the available data on nonprofit employment, wages, and economic impact in the U.S.”

“Nonprofit employment data is essential for informed and effective nonprofit and philanthropy advocacy efforts,” the Mott Foundation associate program officer Carlos Rios-Santiago said in a statement. “We are confident that Alan Abramson and his team at ��AV are ready take on the challenge of producing, analyzing, and visualizing this data and are proud to support their efforts.”

The GMU-NED project will continue to issue cutting-edge reports on nonprofit establishments, employment, and wages based on available QCEW data. Mason has engaged former JHU-NED project manager Chelsea Newhouse, now a senior program manager at East-West Management Institute, to lead the production of these reports.

The Nonprofit Works interactive database application will remain live while the GMU-NED team explores options for further development of the site in anticipation for the planned 2024 release of Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) employment and wage data covering 2018-22.

“We will also continue to work with our colleagues at Independent Sector, the Aspen Institute, the National Council of Nonprofits, and other organizations to seek more frequent release of nonprofit employment data by BLS,” said Abramson. “The ultimate goal is to have BLS report on nonprofit employment more frequently than every five years, which is the current reporting cycle.”

Abramson said new initiatives include broadening the nonprofit data landscape by maximizing his team’s expertise in a broad range of federal data systems to enhance and expand the pool of available data on nonprofit employment, wages, and impact.

“Tapping into these additional data sources will allow for a more robust understanding of the nonprofit sector’s economic role, the demographics of the nonprofit workforce, and federal funding of nonprofit organizations,” he said.

The GMU-NED project will also explore with other stakeholders creating and hosting a network for federal officials who work with databases containing useful nonprofit data.

“We believe convening these officials on a regular basis would be of significant benefit for the nonprofit sector by highlighting the importance of nonprofit data for federal data experts, creating opportunities for collaboration, and expanding the pool of experts who can support nonprofit data generation, publication, and analysis within Federal data systems,” Abramson said.

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Nonprofits

Research

Center on NonprofitsPhilanthropy

Center on Nonprofits Philanthropy and Social Enterprise

Schar School News December 2022

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