It’s been one year since a team of five O’Neill IUPUI MPA candidates traveled to the University of Michigan to take part in a NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation. There, students form teams to tackle a timely topic and use policy decisions to help address it. The topic on the table: global migration.
But the team didn’t get there on their own. Riley Sandel helped with the trip’s planning in 2019. He says they knew the opportunity was unique—but funding was a problem. Without the support of alumni donations, he says their plan never would have come to fruition.
“In all honesty, our team of five would not have gone without the financial help we received from O’Neill alumni,” he says.
A new group of MPA students will head to the 2020 simulation on March 7 to discuss how to create sustainable cities. Donations from the IUPUI O’Neill School Annual Giving Fund helps to make experiences like this possible for students.
Sandel, Stacy Robinson, Michael Weigel, Meghann Bowman, and Josslyn Kennedy know what this year’s group of students will face. Each of them took on a different role in their fictional country during the simulation. Their job was to manage migration.
They spent 12 hours evaluating the issue, developing policy-based solutions, and working with neighboring nations. But beyond the policymaking practice, the team says they walked away with larger learnings that will last throughout their careers:
