public policy

From Classroom to Real World: Schar School Students Engage at Global Climate Conference

Andrew J Schappert — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 15:46:29 +0000

From Classroom to Real World: Schar School Students Engage at Global Climate Conference Andrew J Schappert Fri, 02/04/2022 - 10:46

For four days in November 2021, eight students from the Schar School of Policy and Government attended COP26, the world’s largest global climate conference, in Glasgow, Scotland.*

The trip, part of the Schar School summer course, Climate Policy: A Global Transdisciplinary Approach for the Future, allowed students the opportunity to meet with delegates, negotiators, youth activists, and indigenous groups at the conference. While there, Schar students received a crash course in the complexities of climate change policy and negotiations.

“It was a really great experience getting to see the general process of COP, but also various types of stakeholders that come to the table and how they interact,” said Mason senior Conner Cuevo.

The quick jaunt packed a lot of punch, inspiring in Cuevo a passion for how government and international institutions like the U.N. work and how they can solve global issues.

“It has given me a wealth of experiences to draw from and an endless source of materials that I continue to reference and apply to my classes, and even outside of class,” he said.

His network also expanded: “When you’re in a small group like that, you make a lot of friends.”

Schar School and other ��AV students enrolled in the 3-credit virtual study abroad “Climate Policy” course figuratively “travel” the planet, studying global challenges with experiential learning opportunities and collaboration on a group project with students from the University of Rwanda.

The class features TED-style talks from 20 guest speakers from 18 different countries, including Ma Jun, the top Chinese environmental activist and is one of TIME magazine’s most influential 100 people, and Erik Solheim, a former head of the UN Environmental Program.

“The level, the number, and backgrounds of all speakers that came to class really gave a well-rounded viewpoint,” said Schar School senior Jake Mazzoccoli, who took the class and the trip to Scotland.

For Mazzaccoli, the most interesting event at COP26 was a private session hosted by the Norwegian Africa Business Association (NABA) that featured top negotiators and policy makers from Africa, as well as experts from KPMG. Through a collaboration with NABA, the students helped craft a white paper that resulted from the session, which was moderated by Carol Pineau, a journalist and senior fellow at the Schar School.

Attending COP26 really opened his eyes, Mazzoccoli said, and showed him why things don’t move as quickly as he and others hoped.

“COP is the center of the issue, but it’s frustrating because it’s often just words on paper. It really lit a fire under me,” he said. “I didn’t really understand the complexity and sensitive nature. The problems aren’t simple. You can’t just go over there and fix it.”

But the class offered him a way forward, as he heard about issues directly from their sources and made contacts with high-level officials.

“Climate Policy: A Global Transdisciplinary Approach for the Future” will be taught again in fall 2022, with an in-person visit planned to COP, held this year in Egypt. For more information on the Schar School’s study abroad classes, visit abroad.gmu.edu.

*Students followed numerous COVID-19 protocols, including vaccinations, boosters, and testing before and after travel.

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Schar School News February 2022

Podcast — Ep 22: The coronavirus as Rubik's Cube, Part 2

Damian Cristodero — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 13:37:20 +0000

Podcast — Ep 22: The coronavirus as Rubik's Cube, Part 2 Damian Cristodero Mon, 03/29/2021 - 09:37

In This Story

Gregory Washington

Amira Roess, PhD, MPH

Epidemiologist and public health expert Saskia Popescu talks COVID-19: from policy to the front lines, including fractures in our critical infrastructure and what she tells Mason President Gregory Washington is the false dichotomy between public health and the economy. A fascinating conversation that informs and enlightens.

Topics

Access to Excellence

Access to Excellence podcast

coronavirus; covid-19

College of Health and Human Services

Schar School of Policy and Government

Podcast - EP21: The coronavirus as Rubik's Cube, Part 1

Kristin Heydt — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 19:48:16 +0000

Podcast - EP21: The coronavirus as Rubik's Cube, Part 1 Kristin Heydt Fri, 03/12/2021 - 14:48

In This Story

Gregory Washington

Amira Roess, PhD, MPH

How could the U.S. have improved its response to the COVID-19 pandemic? In part one of this two-part series of the Access to Excellence podcast, Mason president Gregory Washington hosts CHHS epidemiologist, Amira Roess, PhD MPH, as she breaks down the many factors impacting the nation's response and recovery.

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Access to Excellence podcast

coronavirus; covid-19

public policy

Public Health

CHHS News

Graduation Profile: She lifted others as she climbed at Mason

Damian Cristodero — Wed, 13 May 2020 09:30:00 +0000

Graduation Profile: She lifted others as she climbed at Mason Damian Cristodero Wed, 05/13/2020 - 05:30

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��AV

Celebration of Class of 2020

Graduation

Department of Psychology

public policy

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Schar School of Policy and Government

Students

What does it take to understand global terrorism? This Mason team is finding out.

Mariam Aburdeineh — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 00:05:00 +0000

What does it take to understand global terrorism? This Mason team is finding out. Mariam Aburdeineh Tue, 04/28/2020 - 20:05

More than a dozen students, alumni and faculty at ��AV are working on a digital terrorism database that will help policy makers and researchers understand and defend against terrorism.
Front row (left to right): Becca Cooper, Alexis Polo, Caitlin Ford, Amanda Darby, Chukwuma Onyia.
Back row (left to right): Ernest Ogbozor, Mathieu Bere, Isaac Williams, Russ Travers (guest speaker during his tenure as Acting Director of The National Counterterrorism Center), Manuela Chyang, Vincent Nicosia, Haider Semaisim. Photo by Buzz McClain.

To defend against terrorism, you have to understand it. Thanks to more than a dozen students, alumni and faculty at ��AV working on a digital terrorism database, everyone from policy makers to researchers around the world will be a step closer to that goal.

“There are many other databases focusing on [terrorism], but very few have the international reach that we do, most of them are regional or country-specific,” said Vincent Nicosia, a 2019 alumnus of the Schar School of Policy and Government who is working on the database at the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC).

Since the early 1990s, the U.S. Congress has mandated that the State Department produce a report on global terrorism. Part of that includes keeping a database of every terrorist incident around the world, said TraCCC Deputy Director Judith Deane.

Development Services Group Inc. (DSG), partnering with Mason, was awarded the five-year contract from the State Department in August 2018 to work on the reports. Mason hires and trains the multilingual data analysts who interpret, categorize and enter the information, while DSG produces a statistical annex based on the data, Deane said.

“We’re really thrilled to get this,” Deane said. “It’s an educational opportunity for Mason students, and it’s a real opportunity for students to contribute something in the world.”

As the database is congressionally mandated, it informs foreign policy decisions, said Mason professor Mahmut Cengiz, senior data analyst on the project.

Mason’s team complements DSG’s automated open-source information gathering, by analyzing the incidents to ensure the data is as accurate as possible. It’s an innovative approach, Deane said, and unlike most other data collection efforts, the Mason team collects up to 52 attributes for each incident, including facts on the perpetrators, targets, victims and weapons.

Team members have cultural and historic understandings of the countries they work on, and all have studied terrorism or counterterrorism. Front row (left to right): Manuela Chyang, Ernest Ogbozor. Back row (left to right): Matheiu Bere, Isaac Williams, Chukwuma Onyia. Photo by Buzz McClain.

Many students have cultural and historic understandings of the countries they work on, as they’ve lived in the regions and can speak the languages, Cengiz said. All have studied terrorism or counterterrorism.

The diversified staff and their expertise help ensure the database is not overly U.S.-centric in its interpretations, which had been a critique of the database before it was in Mason’s hands, Deane said. There are also members, such as 2017 Antonin Scalia Law School alumnus Haider Semaism, who have been personally affected by terrorism.

The database also looks at trends over time. For some students, the findings have been surprising.

“There’s a lot of different security issues that I wasn’t aware of before,” Nicosia said. “There are hotspots in areas like Chile and the Philippines; most people in the United States would probably imagine terrorism is a Middle Eastern phenomenon, but it’s truly a global issue.”

Being near the hub of U.S. government and policy also allows students to learn from experts who have visited as guest speakers. This semester the team heard from leaders, including former military advisor to the president of Bangladesh General Munir Munirizzaman Ret, former deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center Russell Travers and former acting and deputy director of the CIA Michael Morell, who is also a Schar School Fellow.

“These are some of the same people who are going to be looking at the data when it’s published,” said Caitlin Ford, who earned her bachelor’s in December and returned to Mason for her master’s in public policy. “It’s helpful to get multiple points of view so that we can be as objective and well-rounded as possible.”

“For education and professional growth, this is the place to be right now,” said Vladimir Semizhonov, an international security graduate student originally from Kazakhstan. “It has to do with phenomenon that stands very tall in the political and global agenda, and is not a purely academic exercise.”

In addition to learning more about counterterrorism, their efforts have global value.

“It makes me even more proud to be an American knowing that we are helping combat [terrorism] and that possibly one day we don’t have to have a database for this,” Ford said.

U.S. News & World Report National College Rankings for 2019

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 18:54:20 +0000

U.S. News & World Report National College Rankings for 2019 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/24/2019 - 14:54

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Higher Education for Military

How Mason prepared Steven Monfort to be Director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Melanie Balog — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 10:00:32 +0000

How Mason prepared Steven Monfort to be Director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute Melanie Balog Tue, 11/27/2018 - 05:00

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Quality

Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation

Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI)

environmental biology

public policy

Steven Monfort

interdisciplinary

conservation-learning environment

Conservation

Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Campus News