Schar School News April 2023

Meet the Undergrad Who Is Headed to a PhD Program: Andrew Strasberg

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 12:59:35 +0000

Meet the Undergrad Who Is Headed to a PhD Program: Andrew Strasberg Andrew J Schappert Wed, 04/26/2023 - 08:59

Andrew Strasberg and the poster for his first-place research project. Photos by Buzz McClain/Schar School of Policy and Government

Not every undergraduate can leap from a bachelor of science degree to a highly rated PhD program, but that is what graduating Schar School of Policy and Government student Andrew Strasberg has done.

Strasberg is currently in his final semester at ��AV, finishing up his bachelor of science degree in public administration, and he has accepted an offer of admission to the political science PhD program at Washington University in St. Louis, often referred to as Wash U.

Although Wash U was one of Strasberg’s top choices in his pursuit of a PhD program, the path to being admitted at a top program presented some challenges, but his persistence was undaunted.

“I got rejected from so many places,” he said. “It’s pretty common for people to apply for 10, 12, and maybe even 15 programs and only be accepted into one or two.”

Strasberg’s entry to a PhD program was facilitated by Schar School professors: ‘Their help was immeasurable.’

When asked why he selected Wash U, Strasberg said he wanted to pursue a path to becoming a college professor. “The reason I picked Washington University in St. Louis is due to their excellent political science program.” He added that Wash U has a stellar record of placing graduates in academic positions.

While many Schar students pursue some type of graduate schooling beyond their undergraduate degree, it is relatively rare for graduates of any major to pursue PhD studies immediately after finishing their bachelor’s degree, according to Schar School associate professor Jennifer Victor, who serves as one of Strasberg’s mentors. Victor, who also entered a PhD program straight after undergrad, said it is not an entirely unusual pathway for students to follow, but not many Schar School students have made it their goal the way Strasberg did.

One of the strategies that Strasberg followed was to take more quantitative methods classes than were required in his bachelor’s program. Quantitative methods classes teach students how to collect, analyze, and interpret numerical data, which can be vital in working in or teaching in the public administration field.

In addition to benefiting his application profile, he also found that he liked the courses.

His professors took note of his ambitions and his extra effort and began to recommend him for undergraduate research; they also enabled him to take graduate-level courses.

“Andrew decided a few years ago that a political science PhD was his goal, and he has pursued it with tenacity,” Victor said. “He took extra courses, sought mentorship from multiple faculty, and deliberately included research-oriented activities into his personal curriculum.”

Under the mentorship of Victor, as well as Schar School professors Lucas Núñez and Eric McGlinchey, Strasberg presented his original research at the Midwest Political Science Association conference in Chicago in 2022 and 2023. His first conference presentation began as a paper assignment in McGlinchey’s graduate research design course. The paper, “Hooligans or Honchos? Developing a Political Theory of European Ultra-ism,” was a study of soccer fan behavior; Victor remarked his findings in sport could be applied to a wide range of fields.

This semester, Strasberg won first place in the Schar School’s Undergraduate Research Assistant Program competition. His winning study examined “Who Tweets Populism When?”

Ultimately, Schar School professors gave Strasberg the mentorship and encouragement he needed to pursue a PhD, for which, he said, he is grateful. “Their help was immeasurable,” he said.

For Strasberg, the ultimate goal is to become like the influential professors who helped shape his way.

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Jennifer N. Victor

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To Help Fellow Police Officers Deal with Trauma, She Needed Knowledge. Now She’s a Master’s Student at the Schar School

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 18:08:44 +0000

To Help Fellow Police Officers Deal with Trauma, She Needed Knowledge. Now She’s a Master’s Student at the Schar School Andrew J Schappert Mon, 04/17/2023 - 14:08

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Corinne Dopp stands at the doorway of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The Schar School student, a police officer in North Carolina, is spending a semester abroad studying master’s-level curriculum designed specifically for police.

“If you have turned on the television in the last few years, or even the last few days, you are very aware the relationship between police officers and their communities is suffering,” said Corinne Dopp, reflecting on the seemingly daily news stories involving violence between law enforcement officers and the public they are sworn to protect.

While many in the public-at-large see police as antagonists, even calling on officials to “defund the police,” Dopp sees things from a different angle. She serves as a police officer in the Town of Glen Alpine Police Department, in Morganton, North Carolina, and as such, she’s aware of the trauma—induced by hypervigilance, violence, and working shifts in hazardous environments—that law enforcement officers suffer as a result of daily interactions with domestic turmoil, mental health issues, and criminal activity.

In March 2021, she cofounded a business, with colleague Gregory Snider, to assist police officers address with mental health struggles—Navigating Pathways Home—but the 2021 public health graduate from Appalachian State University realized she needed more knowledge and skills in order to achieve her goal of helping police in jurisdictions other than her own.

To accomplish this mission, Dopp enrolled in the Organization Development and Knowledge Management (ODKM) master’s program at ��AV’s Schar School of Policy and Government. ODKM is a cohort-based, integrated learning experience that deviates from higher education pedagogies: Students act as a team to learn and apply essential leadership proficiencies, creative problem-solving, and advanced analytical skills to a range of professional fields. Many come to the program to advance their careers; others, such as Dopp, learn methodologies not available in traditional degree programs that they immediately apply to their own organizational concepts.

In Dopp’s case, “I have found the answer for how it is possible to build a system that will address the problem [of police mental health issues] in a preventative way from within each police department,” she said. She said she has a plan for an “internal wellness framework” for every police force, at no cost.

That advanced learning does not come without sacrifice. Dopp enrolled in the Schar School’s ODKM program knowing it would mean leaving her three children—ages 13,11, and 4—at home 400 miles away, with her Army active-duty husband Joshua, a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne, for the 12-hour round-trip drive for weekly in-person classes at Mason Square in Arlington.

But it also afforded her an unexpected opportunity: Late last year she was accepted into Mason’s Global Education Office’s semester abroad at the U.K.’s University of Oxford, where she is being exposed to that country’s master’s-level curriculum designed specifically for police. She’s also been a guest lecturer at Cambridge’s Anglia Ruskin University.

“The 12-hours-plus round-trip is the longest we’ve had in the ODKM program,” said professor and program founding director Tojo Thatchenkery. The drive, he suggested, “was also her opportunity for reflection about the changes she wanted to create for the mental health of her own law enforcement community. She understands the emotional turmoil that comes with law enforcement and wants to think outside the box to enhance the well-being of fellow officers.

“With that determination, she is now learning from the best practices of officers around the world in a program at Oxford. Corrine’s indefatigable efforts are one of the best examples of the positive changes ODKM students have been making for social justice and well-being.”

Dopp’s service to her fellow police—helping process trauma, building resiliency, and underscoring community—is important, she said, because as of now, “the way we are treating police officers is ineffective, and we can see this in their average number of pension withdrawals.” She cites World Health Organization figures that show the average citizen experiences one to two “critical incidents” in their lives, outside of normal loss and grief. “A career police officer experiences 600 to 800,” she said.

“This has a health cost. Most officers don’t last five years in the profession, and those who make it to retirement meet that accomplishment at the highest risk of death within their first two years.

“The average life expectancy of a citizen in the United States is 74 years. The average life expectancy of a law enforcement officer is 53 years.”

Additional reporting by Anduela Nika Johnson.

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Biodefense Alumna Lands Prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 19:19:32 +0000

Biodefense Alumna Lands Prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship Andrew J Schappert Mon, 04/10/2023 - 15:19

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Ashley Grant

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Aurelia Berisha: ‘PMF is an amazing opportunity to get your foot in the door, especially for a biodefense student.’

Aurelia Berisha has always been interested in public service to have an opportunity to make a positive difference in the community and other people’s lives. Now, she has that opportunity in her new role as a Program and Management Analyst at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) through the highly competitive Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) program.

Berisha, a native of Chesapeake, Virginia, graduated from ��AV in 2017 with her bachelor of science degree in biology and worked for a few years as a medical technologist. After the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Berisha became interested in strengthening biosafety and biosecurity in the U.S. and enrolled in the Schar School of Policy and Government’s highly ranked Master of Biodefense program, from which she graduated in 2021. While taking classes at Mason Square, Berisha heard about the PMF Program through several professors, including biodefense adjunct professors Ashley Grant and Andrew Kilianski, who encouraged her to apply.

The PMF program is the federal government’s flagship leadership development program for advanced degree holders with a mission of recruiting and developing a cohort of future government leaders drawn from all segments of society. Fellows take part in training and development opportunities, including a leadership development program which focuses on identifying key values for public servants and providing fellows with critical leadership competencies.

“I will participate in self-assessments, intensive small-group discussions, and team challenges,” Berisha said. Additionally, fellows can choose to experience another agency during their term. “The PMF program also provides rotational opportunities within the home agency or other federal agencies that I can apply for to gain a broader scope of the federal government,” she said.

Fellows serve for two years in the agency or agencies of their choice with salary and benefits; many find full-time employment following their fellowships.

The detailed application process alone eliminates many would-be PMF finalists. In 2022, 250 applicants were selected out of 3,000 applications that were submitted. Of the 250, only 120 made it as fellows.

Through the PMF program, Berisha was placed in her current role at USDA in January. Even after only four months, Berisha is already grateful for the opportunities she has had to learn and grow in her new position.

“We receive a lot of training opportunities [through PMF] and I’ve been able to not only gain a lot of knowledge on certain topics, but also leverage my knowledge from the biodefense program, which I’m very grateful for,” she said. “PMF is an amazing opportunity to get your foot in the door, especially for a biodefense student.”

The Schar School Career Services team offers several resources to students interested in applying for the PMF Program, including information sessions for both current students and alumni. Berisha said she is grateful for easy access to these resources through the Schar School during her application process, as well as the helpful advice she received from professors who she credits for making her a stronger candidate. Having someone flag deadlines was also helpful.

After completion of the PMF two-year term, Berisha would like to continue working in the field of biodefense, and said she ultimately aspires to pursue a career in biosecurity and biorisk management, which would combine her experience working in labs with the knowledge she has gained from the Schar School and PMF program.

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Mason’s Debate Freshmen Are National Champions. Discuss.

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 14:16:57 +0000

Mason’s Debate Freshmen Are National Champions. Discuss. Andrew J Schappert Wed, 04/05/2023 - 10:16

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Mason President Gregory Washington, left, Nathan Stolzenfeld, and Megan Rodak.
Photo by Sarah Holland/College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Two first-year ��AV students brought home not one but two national debate titles in a pair of March competitions.

Nathan Stolzenfeld, who is a government and international politics major at the Schar School of Policy and Government, and Global Affairs student Megan Rodak finished their first collegiate season as the top novice duo in the country after securing victories at the American Debate Association National Championship at Georgetown University and the Cross Examination Debate Association JV/Novice National Championship at West Virginia University.

In total, they won six of the nine tournaments that they attended this season. Stolzenfeld was voted Novice of the Year at the American Debate Association National Championship.

The debate style Stolzenfeld and Rodak compete in is “policy debate,” said longtime Mason director of debate Warren Decker. “It’s well known to be the most difficult debate event to excel at even with four years of high school policy debate experience under your belt, let alone pick up during college.”

This year’s topic of debate was “Legal Personhood”: “The United State should vest legal rights and/or duties in one of more of the following: artificial intelligence, nature, nonhuman animal species.” It was at topic that no one on the debate team had prior knowledge of researching or discussing.

The team spent the summer researching, compiling, and synthesizing evidence from peer-reviewed sources, resulting in thousands of pages of notes.

“There are definitely tense moments and incredibly hard debates,” Stolzenfeld said, “but I'm glad to have had a great partner to get through it all with, and amazing coaches to help prepare for challenging debates.”

“Thinking about the fact that I had no idea what policy debate was a few months ago, it's incredibly rewarding to know how far I have come in this activity,” Rodak added. “Each of these tournaments presented their own unique challenges. But through it all we had our coaches and older members of the team helping us through each and every tournament. Seeing that the work we do does in fact, pay off, it makes me excited for the years to come with Mason debate.”

Beyond the knowledge debate provides, the activity of debate also trains students to become quantum thinkers who can think through issues to the fifth and sixth levels of analysis. And a debater learns to become an accomplished public speaker. Former Mason Debate alums have become environmental lobbyists on the Hill, judges in district circuit courts, professors, physicists, class action attorneys, graduate students, politicians, and key professionals in other fields.

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New TraCCC fellowship aims to strengthen democracy, fight corruption in three Central American countries

Colleen Rich — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 15:10:01 +0000

New TraCCC fellowship aims to strengthen democracy, fight corruption in three Central American countries Colleen Rich Mon, 04/03/2023 - 11:10

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Louise I. Shelley

The Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) at ��AV has received $9.9 million to establish a unique fellowship that will provide nationals from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras critical tools to help strengthen democracy and fight corruption in their home countries.

TraCCC founder and director Louise Shelley. Photo by Alexis Glenn

The Democracy and Anti-Corruption Defenders Fellowship, part of a multi-donor and multi-institutional effort that includes the U.S. government, will begin in the summer of 2023 and run through September 2025. Three cohorts of 20 fellows each will include those who have worked in either the public sector, independent media, and/or civil society in their respective countries.

The fellowship will be conducted in Spanish at Mason Square in Arlington, Costa Rica’s University of Peace, with which TraCCC has had a long-standing relationship, and online for those who cannot attend at those locations.

“At this point, this is only for people from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras,” said Louise Shelley, a University Professor at Mason and TraCCC’s founder and director. “They are the ones where there has been a serious erosion of the rule of law and the back-sliding of democracy.”

The fellowship is just right for Mason, a university committed to solving the world’s grand challenges by nurturing critical thinkers and fearless leaders. TraCCC already has an international reputation for understanding the links between terrorism, transnational crime, and corruption, and helping to formulate policy on those issues.

“I’m confident it will be highly consequential,” Mason Provost Mark Ginsberg said of the fellowship, “as it will strengthen the expertise and capacities of champions of democracy and anti-corruption who are vitally important for preserving the rule of law in the region.”

Claudia Escobar Mejía, a Distinguished Visiting Professor in Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government, and co-director of the fellowship with Camilo Pardo-Herrera, a senior analyst at TraCCC, said the fellowships are in two parts.

Mason Square is one of the sites where these international fellows will received training and mentoring. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

The first includes a seminar series focused on the three pillars of the fellowship: institutions, anti-corruption, and democracy.

There will be opportunities for fellows to examine transnational crime, including money laundering and corruption networks, and how investigative journalists and other actors can work collectively to combat corruption and support transitions to democracy. English language instruction will also be offered to all fellows.

The second part of the fellowships include an anti-corruption lab intended to produce deliverables that propose regional solutions in democracy-training and anti-corruption.

Each fellow will have a mentor and opportunities for internships in their particular fields through organizations partnering with TraCCC.

There also will be three gatherings for each cohort: one at Mason Square, one in Costa Rica, and one at the University of Monterrey in Mexico, where the group will be hosted at an annual anti-corruption academic conference.

“They are going to have different experiences in which they are going to build up their capacities to address problems that are really undermining the rule of law and driving migration to the United States,” Escobar Mejía said. “These areas in northern Central America are becoming the hubs of transnational criminal organizations that promote corruption and organized crime. So we’re trying to build their capacities to address problems in the whole region.”

“The important issue is that Mason has a chance to impact significantly in the trajectory of democracy,” said Pardo-Herrera, PhD Public Policy ’19. “We are going to be able to select the best people who really want to have an impact. That is very significant.”

Mason is the natural place for the fellowship to live, Escobar Mejía and Pardo-Herrera said.

Not only is the university close to Washington, D.C., which Escobar Mejía calls “the capital of the international community,” its other academic resources will help TraCCC create new tools for investigations.

In addition, Pardo-Herrera said, “Mason is committed to diversity. Mason is a place where people understand different perspectives, and a place where people can connect to the difficulties of others because of that diversity.”

Bottom line, said Judy Deane, TraCCC’s deputy director, “This fellowship is a practical way of helping individuals who are fighting against corruption and fighting for democracy. In that sense, they are fighting for us.”