Each spring, all first-year graduate students from the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy work in three-to-five person teams to produce policy analyses for use by real-world “clients,” who are typically individuals in the public sector or non-governmental organizations that are confronting a policy problem or opportunity. Might you, someone else in your organization, or other outside contacts you have like this sort of pro bono assistance?
Under faculty supervision, this project requires students to apply the interdisciplinary methods studied in GSPP’s core curriculum, including microeconomics, statistical modeling, law, political theory, and management. Through these projects, students address an actual policy problem, consider alternative solutions, and conclude with recommendations for addressing the problem the client has identified. To meet GSPP education criteria, ideal projects ask students to research alternatives and then confront some sort of trade-off inherent in a choice between two or more different courses of action.
If you or your organization would like to submit an IPA proposal, please use this project proposal form. Please also note a memo from IPA Professor Jane Mauldon outlining expectations for students and clients, guidelines regarding the characteristics of an ideal client, and other timing details. More information, including sample project descriptions, can be found here.
Please submit proposals by Monday, November 19, 2012.