Recruitment with Diversity in Mind

The Diversity Alliance at the Spring 2015 meeting – Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute

Well, I am just about to head out on another round of recruiting trips for SU/Maxwell and specifically the PAIA Department. I really enjoy speaking with young students and professionals about all the great work they can do with a Maxwell MPA or MA International Relations degree.

This particular round of trips is starting off with several events that are planned by our Diversity Alliance of Public Policy Schools. There are five schools represented in our alliance (it is a nice number to work with for collaboration and planning – not too small, not too big!).  I am sure many other schools in our field are as concerned with diversity as much as we are – but we have banded together in this common mission. Much of the recruiting we do (as a group) is outreach specific to US students of color.  Our group includes Admissions representatives from Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School, the Ford School at U Michigan, Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz School, the Harvard Kennedy School and your’s truly, from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School.  This group started over a cup of coffee with the then most recent Admissions Director from SAIS – JHU  who had just started a new position at a top PA School. He had been part of a travel group in the MA IR community and wanted to replicate that with some other admissions directors from top schools of public policy and administration.

So, nearly 15 years later, we are still doing events around the country, and for the past decade, the vast majority of these now have a Diversity Focus.  This week alone, our group will speak on Capitol Hill, at Howard University and meet with the interns from both the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

It is important to have all views and perspectives around the table where big policy decisions are being made – so the more we can reach out to diverse audiences, bring these young professionals to our programs and see them graduate and go on to do the work at hand, the better policy we can make moving forward!

See related post (May 2015):  https://paiaadmissions.syr.edu/admissions-panel-for-congressional-hispanic-caucus-institute/