Successful public policy is as much about execution as theory.
As a capstone of the first-year MPP curriculum you will take part in Spring Exercise, a two-week simulation that that draws on the whole MPP core. It gives you the chance to take the tools and concepts you've studied all year and apply them in a setting that echoes professional reality. In many ways it's the bridge between your first-year courses and your second-year Policy Analysis Exercise, which in turn leads to your subsequent professional work after graduation.
During the Exercise, you are assigned to a five-person team and asked to develop practical policy recommendations for a senior decision maker on a policy issue developed by the MPP teaching team. You'll conduct research, attend expert panels and presentations that link the topic to your core courses, and work with your team to develop potential solutions.
Former topics include:
- Better Schools for Boston
- Haiti: The Way Forward
- Sex Trafficking: Global Challenge, Local Solutions
- Preparing for the Next Pandemic
“As we watched the world deal with the spread of the novel coronavirus, we realized we had a unique opportunity for the Spring Exercise,” said Lecturer in Public Policy Eric Rosenbach. “The exercise could use the world as it is, rather than a simulated world, as source material. But we had some big issues to address.”