Within the Social Policy pillar, we prioritize practical training for both graduate and undergraduate students to enable their hiring into, and successful navigation within, a broad range of career opportunities that bear directly on the enhancement of human and community well-being. A key theme in this pillar is fostering ‘sophisticated awareness’ of the many pathways and pitfalls (technical, methodological, procedural and political) that comprise the challenging arena of Social Policy.

Today’s policy challenges require that tomorrow’s leaders be well versed in innovative, collaborative cross-sector solutions. Nonprofit organizations, philanthropy and social entrepreneurs are major players in how public policy gets developed and implemented as well as how change occurs.

The curriculum features unique opportunities, including a hands-on abroad experiences with nongovernmental organizations (NGO) across the nation and around the world.

Opportunities to engage with our nonprofit and philanthropy experts include:

Public policy missions are accomplished through collaboration — across the public, private nonprofit and business sectors and multiple levels of governance from local to global. Successful implementation of the public interest requires artful and ethical leadership of diverse individuals and groups including a motivated workforce, an engaged public and diverse stakeholders with varying and often competing interests.

Globalization is setting the context and posing the principal problems that are driving the future of public policy. The challenges of the 21st century are increasingly defined by their global reach, as an interconnected world sees the emergence of new, more complex issues and highlights the growing disparity in outcomes across countries. As issues related to economic policy, international security, and development weave together in an intricate web, understanding and navigating this evolving space requires interdisciplinary skills, knowledge and experience.