

Colleen Heflin
Persevering with its almost 100-year legacy of inspiring and cultivating a brand new era of public service-minded professionals, the Maxwell Faculty of Citizenship and Public Affairs has partnered with the Volcker Alliance to supply a brand new program to undergraduate college students campuswide.
The Syracuse College Subsequent Technology Management Corps, nicknamed SU NextGen, emphasizes civic engagement—central to Maxwell since its founding in 1924 because the nation’s first college for public affairs. This system will present undergraduates with problem-solving and collaboration abilities in addition to experiential studying alternatives. It would embrace a mixture of educational coursework, networking and profession exploration in authorities, nonprofit and personal organizations.
Guiding the trouble is a workforce of Maxwell college who lead its signature interdisciplinary undergraduate packages in coverage research; citizenship and civic engagement (CCE); and atmosphere, sustainability and coverage. “The necessity for ready leaders within the public sector has by no means been so pressing,” says Colleen Heflin, affiliate dean, chair and professor of public administration and worldwide affairs. “Our pupil cohorts will likely be organized in response to subjects of curiosity with the intention of partaking in conversations that reply to threats to democracy and complicated historic and political moments, corresponding to local weather change, racial fairness and housing.”
Heflin is supported within the effort by colleague Jane Learn, affiliate professor of geography and the atmosphere and director of the atmosphere, sustainability and coverage built-in studying main. Fellow organizers additionally embrace Kris Patel, professor of follow in coverage research and Donald P. and Margaret Curry Gregg Professor of Observe in Korean and East Asian Affairs; Peter Wilcoxen, professor of public administration and worldwide affairs and director of undergraduate coverage research; and Junko Takeda, professor of historical past, Daicoff College Scholar and interim chair of CCE.

The primary cohort of Syracuse College Subsequent Technology Management Corps college students participated in a Summer season Summit at Montclair State College in New Jersey over the summer time. They included, from left, political science and citizenship and civic engagement main Nathan Torabi, coverage research main Sarhia Rahim, coverage research and psychology main Aryn Chartock and political science and promoting main Chelsie Auguste.
The NextGen Service Corps, because the nationwide program is thought, was launched in 2020 by the Volcker Alliance, a philanthropic group that was based by the late Paul A. Volcker, a well known voice on American financial coverage who served as chairman of the Federal Reserve and was a longtime member of the Maxwell Faculty Advisory Board. Volcker is honored at Maxwell with a college chair in behavioral economics—now held by Leonard Lopoo—and an related lecture and symposium sequence administered by Maxwell’s Heart for Coverage Analysis. “As a member of our advisory board, Chairman Volcker was steadfast in his prioritization of public service and civic engagement as foundational to Maxwell college students’ expertise,” says Dean David M. Van Slyke. “As we put together to rejoice the Maxwell Faculty centennial in 2024, it appears particularly becoming that we be a part of the Volcker Alliance in bringing NextGen to the College. Its mission to organize engaged residents so intently aligns with our work. I’m additionally happy that this system prioritizes the recruitment of pupil populations historically underrepresented in authorities.”
Syracuse is amongst 17 universities and faculties collaborating within the nationwide program. Programming is personalized by collaborating establishments. At Syracuse, individuals will likely be required to take two programs, provided at Maxwell, in addition to a credit-bearing internship. They may even take part in occasions to construct their networks, interact with new concepts and take into account how others strategy urgent social points and cultural conversations. “These occasions will embrace a Voices of Public Service speaker sequence that can present connections with notable public coverage practitioners, service teams known as mission groups, {and professional} improvement workshops,” says Heflin.
Nathan Torabi, a rising sophomore majoring in political science and CCE, is among the many first cohort of Syracuse college students. He attended the Subsequent Technology Service Corps Summer season Summit at Montclair State College in New Jersey in June. Summit programming included a subject journey to the Volcker Alliance workplace in close by New York Metropolis, the place he spoke about mass incarceration with a girl who was beforehand imprisoned and who’s now constructing a profession within the subject of software program engineering. “This dialog impressed me by no means to simply accept inequalities within the regulation and to at all times combat for equality,” says Torabi. Torabi and fellow college students who full SU NextGen will obtain a digital badge that can be utilized on LinkedIn for skilled networking and improvement.