O'Neill celebrates Student Employee Appreciation Week

O’Neill celebrates Student Employee Appreciation Week

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Leslie Wells

A photo grid of seven female students each standing outside. The Text says Student Employee Appreciation Week.

When you walk into the O’Neill offices in BS3025, odds are good you’ll see a student sitting behind our front desk to greet you. They’re part of the O’Neill Student Services team, helping to advise their fellow students, answer questions, plan events, and more.

These seven students are the secret weapon for the O’Neill Student Services staff. The Student Success team runs the front desk and works on projects with O’Neill staff, while peer advisors help their fellow O’Neill students chart out their courses and get connected to campus.

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O’Neill Indianapolis rises in national MPA program rankings

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Leslie Wells

A woman in a t-shirt stands on a bridge with the Indianapolis skyline behind her. Her shirt is dark gray and says O'Neill Indianapolis.

O’Neill Indianapolis’ Master of Public Affairs program has risen in the rankings among the best graduate schools in the nation. The 2025–26 U.S. News and World Report rankings revealed O’Neill Indianapolis’ MPA program now ranks No. 36 out of 268 public affairs schools across the country, climbing three spots from its 2024–25 rankings.

“At IU Indianapolis, we’re proud that the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs’ Master of Public Affairs continues to be recognized as a national leader in public affairs,” said Latha Ramchand, inaugural chancellor of IU Indianapolis. “This ranking reflects our commitment to preparing leaders who strengthen communities, shape policy, and drive progress right here in Indiana.”

O’Neill Indianapolis also maintained its No. 2 spot for its Nonprofit Management specialty ranking, second only to O’Neill Bloomington which held onto its No. 1 placement.

“We are extremely proud to see O’Neill Indianapolis climb in the rankings, and are thrilled that both campuses once again took the top two spots for Nonprofit Management,” said O’Neill School Dean Siân Mooney. “The O’Neill School’s high ranking in this and several other concentrations reflects the incredible work of our faculty and students and further demonstrates that O’Neill graduate students are well prepared to make a difference by leading for the greater good.”

In addition to its No. 2 ranking for Nonprofit Management, four other O’Neill Indianapolis MPA concentrations maintained their top 30 rankings this year:

#12 Environmental Policy and Management
#16 Urban Policy
#17 Local Government Management
#29 Public Management and Leadership

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Sarah Price: O’Neill’s Chancellor’s Scholar

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Leslie Wells

A woman with long brown hair is smiling is a field. She's wearing a black sleeveless shirt and is standing in front of a tree. — Sarah Price was named O’Neill’s 2025 Chancellor’s Scholar.

When Sarah Price visited IU Indianapolis, she initially wasn’t planning on attending the O’Neill School. She wanted to do something in the nonprofit sector and was intending to enroll with another school. But on her campus visit, she also toured O’Neill and realized it was a better fit for her interests.

“In particular, I loved that the Civic Leadership program offered an interdisciplinary education, while also providing more of an emphasis on policy studies than I had found in similar programs at other universities,” she recalls.

She made the change and began her career with the O’Neill School shortly after that visit. Since then, Price has made a name for herself in the classroom and on campus, even earning a spot among the university’s Top 100 undergraduates in 2024. Now, as she prepares to finish her bachelor’s degree, she has a new accolade to add to the list.

This year, Price was named the O’Neill School’s Chancellor’s Scholar—an honor that goes to the undergraduate student with the highest GPA among each school’s graduating class.

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Nonprofit Expo connections, internship launch political career for O’Neill alum

Posted on March 31, 2025 by Leslie Wells

A man in a suit stands next to a sign that says involve, invest, intern. Get paid, gain experience, earn academic credit, make connections. Internship opportunities. — Nathaniel Massy (BSPA’18) now works as a legislative assistance at the Indiana Statehouse. He returned to IU Indianapolis in 2024 to recruit interns during the Nonprofit Expo.

Nathaniel Massy (BSPA’18) keeps a fast pace as he walks through the halls of the Indiana Statehouse.

“Hold on, I have a senator who needs something,” he says, pausing briefly to address the critical work of the lawmakers he serves.

Indiana’s 2025 legislative session is in full swing. As a legislative assistant, that means Massy has to keep up with the hustle and bustle of the policymaking process. It can be an intense career, but it’s one he’s grateful to have found.

“I never thought I would be here,” he admits.

At the beginning of his college career, his doubts were rooted in uncertainty. He started focusing on a business path, but it wasn’t what he had hoped it would be.

It was around that same time—during the 2015–16 election cycle—that he and so many others began developing an interest in politics.

“It was the first election cycle I had really followed, and I thought there was some crazy stuff going on,” he says. “We needed to do something.”

That gave him the heading he needed—and he made the switch to O’Neill.

“It was an immediate night and day difference,” he recalls. “I felt so much more connected to the people in my classes. I was more interested in the coursework. It just felt like the right fit for me.”

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New director: Expansion plans on the horizon for IU Executive Education

Posted on March 24, 2025 by Leslie Wells

A man stands in front of a window with snow in the background. He's wearing a blue blazer, tie, and glasses. — John Courtney came on as IU Executive Education’s director during the spring semester.

As the new director of IU Executive Education, John Courtney understands the bullet points on his resume may prompt questions.

He doesn’t come from a traditional leadership, academic, or training background. Instead, he spent more than three decades working in technology sales and sales leadership for companies like Microsoft, Oracle, and HP. But after a year of semi-retirement, he wanted to do more.

“I realized retirement wasn’t in my vocabulary,” Courtney laughs.

He had experienced a lot of organizational change over the years and came away with an important lesson about leadership.

“New leaders often make changes based on their ego rather than data,” he explains. “A good leader is humble enough to come into a leadership role and know they don’t know everything. We need humble, data-driven leadership.”

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