“Tomorrow’s careers will require individuals with critical and synthetic thinking, analytical and analogical reasoning, written and oral presentation skills, and diverse and global experiences,” says Maxwell Dean David Van Slyke. “That’s a tall order for any university, school or program. But at the Maxwell School, these have always been our goals, and undergraduates will find professors, staff, fellow students and alumni who share this broad outlook.”

To counteract anti-American reporting, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks' role is “to expand the spectrum of ideas, opinions, and perspectives available in the [region’s] media,” says MBN's senior vice president Nart Bouran ’89 B.A. (IR). 

A play adaptation of Mike Stanton's '79 B.A. (PSc) book "The Prince of Providence" about former Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci has opened to rave reviews at the Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, with plans for Broadway and a movie.

 “I want to pass on as much as I can from my own experience in local NGOs to the next generation,” says former Humphrey Fellow Dee Moskoff '15 M.P.A., who offers internship opportunities in South Africa as the director of the nonprofit Connect Network.

Jok Madut Jok, professor of anthropology, "brings regional expertise on a part of the world that is critically important from a security standpoint,” says John McPeak, a professor of public administration and international affairs. “He also adds a new perspective on issues of humanitarian relief, post-conflict reconstruction, immigration and refugee flows, and negotiations."

"The Humphrey year enabled me to turn an idea into action," says Nimrod Goren, founder of Mitvim: The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies. The Humphrey Fellowship Program, which honors former US vice president Hubert H. Humphrey's commitment to international cooperation and public service, brings midcareer professionals from emerging democracies to the US for graduate study, professional development, and cultural exchange, with Maxwell being one of the 13 colleges selected by the US Department of State to provide hosting and teaching.

Matt Bonham, former director of the international relations program, recently passed away. Though he is gone, the M.A. (IR) program continues to build upon his legacy. “He wanted a world where people could get along and understand each other,” says University Professor Dennis Kinsey, with whom Bonham co-founded a dual degree for careers in public diplomacy. “Matt wanted the world to be a safer place.”

“This is a time to rally the troops—to say, ‘Your appreciation of and affection for Maxwell matters now more than ever. We need your vote of confidence,’” says David M. Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School, about seeking donor funding.

“He wears his brilliance well,” says Joe Mareane ’79 M.P.A., chief fiscal officer for Onondaga County and former student of Professor Bernard Jump, who is retiring. “He is patient, calm, reassuring, and responsive. Dr. Jump had a wonderful knack for reassuring a bunch of polisci majors that the complexities of public finance are within their reach, and a teaching style that fulfills that promise.”

As John Liu sees it, the fundamental objective of science is to generate knowledge to help solve real-world problems. “As a research university, we need to align ourselves with major societal challenges,” says Syracuse University’s vice president for research.

Supporting and improving public service has been a major focus of Paul Volcker, former chair of the Federal Reserve, for decades. From Volcker’s perspective, Maxwell is an exception to the general trend among universities of paying less and less attention to training future civil servants in how to implement public policy effectively and efficiently.

This is a boom time for undergraduates at the Maxwell School—new majors, expanded research programs, diverse experiential opportunities, enhanced advising, and more. It all builds on a tradition of undergraduate education that goes back to Maxwell’s beginning. There has never not been a “Maxwell undergrad.”

Ghanaian physician Laud Boateng will use his MPA/IR to improve health policy worldwide.