刘易斯, 右四, with her cohort at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

大四，主修双学位 经济学 和 政治科学 来自伊利诺伊州罗克福德., 路易丝Claussen’24 has been planning for years to pursue a 法律 大学毕业后的学位. She took a chance on a fellowship at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs last summer through the Public Policy 和 International Affairs (PPIA) program. 现在, after specializing in public policy design 和 analysis there, 她对未来的展望更加清晰, 但也有点复杂.

就像 Martu Kollie在PPIA的经历, 刘易斯 found her program challenging 和 her experiences irreplaceable. 她凝聚, graduate-level classes in policy formulation 和 analysis, 经济学, 统计数据, 和 research design delved into tough topics like racial justice, 气候变化, 全球不平等.

While it was difficult to juggle five subjects over seven weeks, 刘易斯’s ability to persist shone through in her varied class projects. She wrote an op-ed about political polarization on college campuses 和 conducted her own research within sex trafficking survivor communities for a qualitative methods project. 作为一名经济学专业的学生, she had an edge in her stats class over her cohort, but also was excited to learn a new research software program.

Many of the public policy issues she’d touched on in her 政治科学s courses came to life, 特别是在公共卫生方面. 她写了一份政策备忘录, “Combatting Disparate Suicide Rates Among Youth in American Indian 和 Alaskan Native Communities,” which she later presented at a poster session at the Humphrey School. 这是一次感人的经历.

刘易斯 和 her project collaborators before their poster presentation.

“Writing it was a really rewarding process,” she says. “We worked in groups on this large-scale research project which mirrors how policy memor和ums are written 和 recommended. It was imperative to the success of this project that my group was able to work together effectively, 和 we did a good job at communicating 和 distributing the work evenly. I also think that working together increased the quality of our work; the diversity of perspectives pushed us to devise innovative solutions to the issue we were tackling.

“I have been interested in public health for a long time, 和 while this project focused specifically on policy recommendations, I was able to do a lot of research on the existing 法律s that impact the mental health of Indigenous communities, which was an interesting way for me to gain more insight from a legal perspective. Health 法律 is definitely a field that I could see myself working in in the future, 和 this project encouraged me to do more research into what a career in health 法律 would look like.”

刘易斯 didn’t only learn a lot in the classroom. 她与教授们建立了联系, 访问该领域的活动家和学者, 比如曼德拉研究员, a group of young African leaders 和 policy experts invited to the U.S. for leadership training 和 student discussions. She became close friends with many students in her cohort, 和他们一起住在宿舍, 参加音乐会, 和 going on hiking trips 和 museum excursions in the Twin Cities. She still talks to many of them daily, months after the experience.

路易丝Claussen’24 aspires to focus in public policy in 法律 school after graduation.

“There were so many students with diverse backgrounds 和 different life experiences, 和 I think the diversity of perspectives that I was exposed to was one of the most rewarding parts of the whole program,露易丝说. “While most students there were focused on pursuing a graduate degree in public policy, there were a few other students who also were planning on attending 法律 school. It was motivating to be able to study with other members of my cohort for the LSAT 和 to be able to talk to them about the application process 和 their plans for what type of 法律 they wanted to practice.”

刘易斯 has held onto her plan to go to 法律 school after graduating from Beloit, even as her JSI program pushed her towards graduate studies in public policy 和 global affairs. But now, she thinks she may want to specialize her 法律 studies in public policy or human rights.