Maxwell School News and Commentary

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.”

A new program helps veterans convert their sense of community investment to civic engagement and political office.

The way Roza Vasileva sees it, the future is data: in particular, data gathered by governments—local, regional, national, international—and shared with citizens to make their communities, and their countries, better. Roza’s desire to make the world a better place drove her to study in the United States as a Fulbright Scholar and to launch a career spearheading open data in more than a dozen countries. What made that happen, more than anything, were her experiences at the No. 1 ranked Maxwell School of Syracuse University.

Beginning this fall, for the first time ever, students planning to major in the social sciences applied and were admitted directly to the Maxwell School. Prior to this, students applied to A&S, and they became a Maxwell student only if they declared a Maxwell major, usually sometime around the end of their sophomore year.

Peer to Peer reflects the diverse professional experience and interests of Maxwell’s midcareer professionals, says Margaret E. Lane, Executive Education's assistant director. “Our students are leaders of organizations and agencies from around the globe who are dedicated to public service and have insights to share,” she says. “In sharing their insights, they enrich us all.”

Cynthia Wang, who holds a BA in International Relations from Maxwell, has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious Critical Language Scholarship and will study Azerbaijani in Azerbaijan.