University of Minnesota
HHH
http://www.hhh.umn.edu/centers/hhh
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The Humphrey School of Public Affairs is the University of Minnesota's school of policy and planning.




"I wanted to understand how policies were made and how they could be shaped by the people who are most affected by them."

Sarah Martyn Crowell

Management Analyst, Special Initiatives Group,
National Institutes of Health

Degree: MPP 2006
Location: Washington, D.C.

After graduating from Kalamazoo College, Sarah Martyn Crowell worked for nonprofits before heading to the Humphrey School to get a Master of Public Policy degree. Her work at Habitat for Humanity, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Citizens for Election Integrity influenced her desire to work towards social justice through policy.

Why did you choose the Humphrey School?
After working for a couple of nonprofits, I decided I was ready to back to school to pursue a master’s degree. I came to the Humphrey School with two goals in mind. First, I wanted to learn how to better engage the public in policymaking. Whether that was community organizing, activism, or providing greater awareness, I wanted to learn methods to facilitate these types of engagement. Second, I wanted to enhance my quantitative skills, from economic analysis to regression analysis to budgeting. The Humphrey School seemed to a have program that would fit my interests, and I really think it did a great job in helping me achieve these two goals.

What makes the Humphrey School special?
The faculty and professors are very well connected to what is actually happening outside of academia, what is happening on the ground. Those connections give students lots of opportunities to be involved in real-world contexts, so it is not just about the classroom, it is not just about what you are learning in books. I think that is really special.

Why public policy?
I was inspired to study public policy because of my experiences in various nonprofit organizations, where I felt that public policy greatly influenced the lives of communities that I was serving. I wanted to understand how policies were made and how they could be shaped by the people who are most affected by them.

 

March 15, 2012