Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, dean of 17吃瓜在线鈥檚 School of Education, envisions a bold new partnership with District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) to address a growing teacher shortage and increase diversity among their ranks. Graduates of DCPS admitted into the Teacher Pipeline Program will earn a bachelor鈥檚 in education and progress along a professional development track that culminates in a guaranteed five-year, full-time teaching position in 1 of 115 public schools across Washington. 鈥淲e will help the city fill a significant need鈥攖eachers鈥攁nd participants would give back to their own communities while securing a great career in education,鈥 Holcomb-McCoy says. Backed by generous philanthropic support, the program will provide homegrown talent with the rigorous education, career training, and field experience to help them become exceptional teachers.
Good Neighbors
17吃瓜在线 must be 鈥渁 part of, not apart from鈥 DC鈥檚 people and neighborhoods, President Sylvia Burwell said during her inaugural speech in April. Faculty and students are taking part in a variety of projects that connect 17吃瓜在线 with every corner of the District鈥攎any of these partnerships made possible by the university鈥檚 visionary donors.
Here are a few of the inventive ways 17吃瓜在线 is engaging with DC鈥檚 people and places: 聽
鈥⒙ 聽Founded four years ago with the support of 17吃瓜在线 trustee Jeff Sine, SIS/BA 鈥76, the Community-Based Research Scholars (CBRS) program is a living-learning community for select first-year students and certificate program. The student researchers fan out across all eight wards, partnering with nonprofits to explore community problems, identify avenues of change, and evaluate program impact. Led by program director Jane Palmer, SPA/PhD 鈥13, students have explored food access with the Latin American Youth Center and focused on education聽聽at the Maya Angelou Public Charter School. 鈥淏efore CBRS, my idea of DC was the monuments and tourist attractions,鈥 Brandan Persaud, SPA/BA 鈥18, says. By engaging with organizations that are immersed in community issues, 鈥淐BRS has shown me a DC that I otherwise wouldn鈥檛 have been exposed to.鈥
鈥⒙ 聽17吃瓜在线 will soon be taking it to the streets in the new DC Humanities Truck. Funded by a $225,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, the delivery vehicle-turned-mobile workshop, recording studio, and gallery space will allow 17吃瓜在线 researchers to document and share Washingtonians鈥 stories. Dan Kerr, director of 17吃瓜在线鈥檚 public history program, says the truck will facilitate 鈥渓onger-term projects in communities and enhance our ability to build a rapport. We don鈥檛 just take stories and disappear鈥攚e reflect on what鈥檚 gathered. Oral histories are a starting point from which we can build archival research and workshops, then return to the community with mobile exhibits.鈥 The truck will make its debut appearance as a pop-up exhibit space at the Adams Morgan Day community festival on September 9.
鈥⒙ 聽The School of Public Affairs is a leading academic partner in The Lab @ DC鈥攁n innovative agency within Washington鈥檚 Office of Budget and Performance that uses scientific methods and insights to test, improve, and analyze policies that impact the city鈥檚 nearly 700,000 residents. 鈥淭he Lab @ DC allows us to know how well our policies and programs are working and provides us the opportunity to learn while we act,鈥 said DC mayor Muriel Bowser, SPA/MPP 鈥00, last summer. Government professor Ryan Moore is a senior social scientist with the lab, which used his statistical software to study the Metropolitan Police Department鈥檚 use of body cameras. 鈥淒C鈥檚 an amazing place for the lab because the breadth of the policy domains penetrates every aspect of the District. DC functions as a city, as a county, as a state鈥攕o we fix the potholes and we also run Medicaid,鈥 Moore says. 17吃瓜在线鈥檚 connections to the lab run deep: faculty serve on the research council and make guest appearances on Podcast @ DC; graduate students work as research assistants; and undergrads present their final projects based on DC open data to lab staff.
For information on how to support 17吃瓜在线鈥檚 big ideas in DC, contact Courtney Surls, vice president of Development and Alumni Relations, at 202-885-5900 or vpdar@american.edu.
Innovation in the Capital
Brett Gilbert knows what new businesses need to thrive. A leading entrepreneurship researcher, Gilbert is 17吃瓜在线鈥檚 inaugural Kogod Regional Innovation Chair. She joined the business school鈥檚 management faculty in January 2018 and is associated with the 17吃瓜在线 Center for Innovation.
Trustee emeritus Robert Kogod, Kogod/BSBA 鈥62, and his wife, Arlene, established the Kogod Regional Innovation Fund to advance regional economic development and to leverage 17吃瓜在线鈥檚 Washington location.聽
鈥淗olding the chair is very important to me,鈥 Gilbert says. 鈥淚t gives me the license and resources to develop my research鈥攏ot just internationally, but domestically鈥攁nd to focus on the Washington, DC, area to better understand capital cities.鈥
Gilbert, who comes to 17吃瓜在线 from Rutgers University in New Jersey, researches technology clusters to determine how geographic regions foster startups. 鈥淚鈥檝e been most interested in understanding how these regions develop. What are the components that ultimately make these technology regions work, and what are some of the barriers that keep them from emerging?鈥 Gilbert鈥檚 current work focuses on fostering economic development and dynamic technology environments in cities with troubled economies and underdeveloped tech sectors.聽
According to Gilbert鈥檚 previous research in Brazil, South Africa, and India, the capital cities of states behave differently from federal capitals because government鈥檚 dominance as an employer influences the career trajectory of citizens. Gilbert and her 17吃瓜在线 colleagues hope to collaborate with researchers at a British university to compare DC and London as hubs for innovation.
Last semester Gilbert taught an undergraduate course in global corporate citizenship and she鈥檚 planning an immersive graduate program for the fall. 鈥淚 love being back in this type of environment where students are really encouraged to be critical thinkers,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 was so impressed with the students I had this semester鈥攖heir maturity and engagement. I am excited to be here.鈥