Many prospective students express interest in becoming involved in research as part of their graduate school experience. This post is the first in a series that will focus on the research centers at the Ford School and how their work is relevant to our students.

The International Policy Center (IPC) has recently expanded both their staff and their activities. Professor John Ciorciari is the faculty director of IPC and brings an impressive resume with him. His research interests include international law and politics in the Global South, particularly in Asia. He has been a National Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and a Shorenstein Fellow at Stanford’s Asia-Pacific Research Center. He is also part of the inaugural class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows.

This past year two new staff members joined IPC. Cliff Martin is the Global Engagement Program Manager. He leads IPC’s efforts to help design, manage, and support international policy courses at the Ford School, as well as related events and co-curricular programs. He also helps lead IPC initiatives to foster interdisciplinary research, cultivate strong ties to international policy practitioners, and develop opportunities and resources for students.

Zuzana Wisely is the Administrative Coordinator. She serves as the lead event planner for IPC’s major events, seminars and conferences and she is the Ford School travel administrator for Public Policy courses with an experiential learning component that require traveling abroad.

Two areas of work for IPC that involve large numbers of Ford School students are the International Economic Development Program (IEDP), which takes a group of students to a developing country and internship funding support for masters’ students pursuing an internship abroad.

The addition of these two new roles has given IPC the ability to add other types of exciting programming to their schedule. The Center just hosted a policy simulation exercise on diplomacy related to North Korea. They are also planning a second simulation related to conflict resolution for the winter semester.

IPC also hosts two seminar series, one related to international security issues and the other to international economic development.  These seminars are open to students. If you are interested in learning more about the work of the International Policy Center, you should definitely visit their website.

In October 2016, the University of Michigan announced the establishment of Poverty Solutions, a university wide research center headed by Ford School faculty member Luke Shaefer. I had an opportunity to talk with Julia Weinert, who was recently named as the assistant director of the center, to gain more insight into their work.

According to Julia, Poverty Solutions originated from a faculty dinner hosted by University of Michigan (UM) president Mark Schlissel, to garner opinions from the faculty of the university as to the societal problems they believed the university could impact the most. This issue of poverty was at the top of the list. Given the wide range of work being done across campus, the decision was made to designate an initiative to help track and harness these efforts. One of the main goals for Poverty Solutions is to leverage the breadth and depth of resources of the university to put research into action.

An early project that Poverty Solutions is tackling is a summer jobs program for youth in Washtenaw County.  The Summer Youth Employment Program brings together the University of Michigan’s Ginsberg Center, the Youth Policy Lab, University Human Resources and Washtenaw County community partners to leverage the resources of UM to help at risk students find summer employment, both on campus and at other partner sites in the community.  In addition to helping with job placement, Poverty Solutions is also focused on helping to identify and alleviate the barriers these students often encounter, such as transportation or equipment. Students in the program will also participate in professional development activities. By gathering data from the program participants and comparing it to similar youth jobs programs taking place around the country, the Poverty Solutions team hopes to gain a better understanding of those factors that really contribute to success and develop a set of best practices to share.

While Poverty Solutions is in the early stages of development, the programs they are sponsoring provide an exciting beginning to the work they hope to accomplish. You can learn more about the center by visiting their website at http://poverty.umich.edu/

Best wishes, Beth