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Wilder School Hosts First VCU Public Service Weekend

Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs is delighted to host the university’s first Public Policy & International Affairs (PPIA) Public Service Weekend on the VCU Monroe Park campus from June 14-16, 2019.

Twenty-five undergraduates and recent college graduates will gather in the City of Richmond to examine “Social Equity in Public Policy Analysis,” an event designed to increase the participation and inclusion of traditionally underrepresented groups at the highest level of public sector leadership. The VCU Wilder School is one of just five institutions selected to host this competitive summer program, which regularly attracts top students from a wide range of universities. This year’s participants includes students from Harvard University, Princeton University, Duke University, Purdue, Emory and Arizona State universities to name a few.

Through meetings with Virginia policymakers, professional development workshops and introductory sessions on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), participants will gain an understanding of social equity and public policy analysis and be tasked with conducting their own empirical analysis of regional disparities in areas such as housing, economics, crime and transportation. On Friday, the group will meet with L. Douglas Wilder, 66^th Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the first African-American to be elected governor in the United States, for an intimate dinner and keynote address. The experience features a packed agenda of meetings senior-level representatives from the General Accountability Office, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and numerous state and local elected officials.

Leadership from the VCU Wilder School, PPIA and the Network of Schools of Public Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) will also be present throughout the weekend to welcome students. As Interim Dean Susan Gooden noted in her opening remarks, “Public Service Weekend students bring a tremendous amount of interest and enthusiasm to the program. We are thrilled to welcome them to the Wilder School, and hope we can pique their interest in becoming a part of the VCU community one day. Like our partners at NASPAA and PPIA, the Wilder School is committed to diversifying the next generation of public servants.”