Wharton Public Policy Research Scholars program not open to College students

A new interdisciplinary certificate offered to undergraduates at Penn will allow students from across the schools to integrate public policy into their courses of study.

Pioneered by the Wharton Public Policy Initiative, Penn’s hub for public policy, the Wharton Public Policy Research Scholars program lets students from the Wharton School, the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Nursing add a public policy certificate to their degree. The first group of 11 scholars are sophomores. Applications opened during the end of last semester, and the only prerequisites for students to apply are two semesters of economics study.

A major hurdle of implementing the certificate program is the fact that it has not yet been approved for students in the College of Arts and Sciences. The program organizers intended from its inception to include students from all four schools, but the School of Arts and Sciences has not yet approved the certificate, Assistant Director of Policy Research & Coordination Matthew Stengel said.

Rogers Smith, a Political Science professor closely involved in the process of approving the certificate for College students, said that during discussions last year, SAS faculty expressed interest in approving the program; however, questions remained as to what the structure and involvement of SAS faculty would be, and the decision was tabled.

“There are further approvals that will be needed but I hope that the questions will get resolved during this fall,” Smith said.

The curriculum for the certificate consists of eight classes. Students take “Intro to Business Economics and Public Policy,” two semesters of calculus or one semester of calculus and one semester of statistics and one of four courses in the Political Science Department focusing on policy. Then, students chose a policy track to delve into, such as education policy, healthcare policy or energy and environmental policy, in which they take three classes. Finally, students participate in a capstone course during the spring semester of their senior years in which they write a policy analysis of a current issue.

Students are required to complete one public policy internship, for which the program guarantees full funding, and are encouraged to do research related to their field of interest within public policy.

There are already opportunities within Penn’s curriculum for students to study public policy. Wharton offers a business economics and public policy concentration, and the College offers a thematic concentration in policy and governance as part of the philosophy, politics and economics major, as well as an American public policy minor.

However, the new certificate program is different from these courses of study because it allows students from across majors and undergraduate schools to integrate public policy into their own courses of study, as well as pursue a specific issue more in-depth. Additionally, the program helps students arrange research opportunities and internships.

“Everything we’re doing, including the classes, are things that students could have pieced together themselves, but we’re giving it direction, administrative support and funding,” Stengel said.

College and Wharton sophomore Emily Zhen heard about the Public Policy Research Scholars program during her summer internship in Washington, D.C. She decided to apply in part because she was inspired by the people she met while at the Department of Treasury.

Zhen will pursue the health or fiscal policy track in the certificate program. “I think with the Affordable Care Act and all of the implementation there’s so much to do career-wise with health policy and public health,” she said.

Nursing sophomore Erin Hartman, the sole nurse in the certificate program currently, applied because although she wants to work in healthcare after she graduates, her academic passions lie in the realms of economics and political science. She was also inspired by her Nursing professor, Julie Sochalski, who worked on writing the Affordable Care Act, to explore a career in policy.

Hartman hopes that if she works in public policy, having a nursing degree will give her a better idea of what hospitals are really like and help her to better understand the realities of the United States healthcare system.

“People write policy, but don’t necessarily see it in action,” she said.

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