Tags: knowledge industry
Tags: knowledge industry
March 24, 2010
Postscript by Ana Liss whose team did not win but who's an awfully good sport (and intern!).
The 3-and-a-half hour event on Saturday was a nail-biter for the student
participants, but an all-out success for the Fels Institute's inaugural
"Public Policy Challenge." After each team presented its initiative,
answered tough questions from the panel of judges, and waited patiently
during a tense 20-minute deliberation session, it was announced that "Land Philadelphia" was the winner.
The team - made up of students from Penn Law, Penn Design, the Fels
Institute of Government, Temple Law, the School of Engineering and
Applied Science, and Wharton - proposed an idea aimed at transforming
Philadelphia's blighted and tax-delinquent properties into the city's
greatest asset. They used their combined knowledge of available tax
credits, city ordinances, and the work required to fix neglected
properties to develop a comprehensive civic campaign that was both
detailed and practical. The team shed light on Philadelphia's
Department of Licenses and Inspections' lack of an easily-accessible
computer database keeping track of blighted properties -- something that
they recommended be addressed as part of their plan. The judges were
impressed, and "Land Philadelphia's" five members each received a $500
scholarship, while the whole team was granted $2,500 to give to a local
charity of their choice.
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One morning in the fall of 2008 after disembarking his train, David Thornburgh - ELGP's former Executive Director - walked from 30th Street Station to the Fels Institute of Government on Penn's Campus where he'd recently been named Executive Director. Thornburgh's mind was alive with ideas about how he could enhance the program, a small but arguably mighty presence among public policy schools. "It was somewhere between 30th Street and 33rd," said Thornburgh. "I was thinking about other professional masters degree programs [that] have well-established student competitions. Business schools have business competitions; law schools have law competitions. But there was no corollary [for public policy schools]." He didn't know it yet, but on that day the Public Policy Challenge was born.
He enlisted the help of a first-year student and Fels associate, Jack Higgins. "We wanted [the competition] to be something that drew on different skills and disciplines [at Penn] and that had a real practical quality to it," said Thornburgh. Over the course of the academic year and the summer months, plans were organized to roll out the idea in the beginning of the spring semester of the 2009-10 academic year. Sponsorships were secured from the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and the University of Pennsylvania, a website was set up, and the competition was advertised not just to Penn students (undergraduates and graduate students in all disciplines) but also to students at other Philadelphia colleges and universities.
Last fall, approximately 100 students from eight of the twelve schools at Penn applied plus one Bryn Mawr student. From there, 45 were selected to participate; they were divided into ten teams based on the policy interests they identified in their applications.
The Public Policy Challenge kicked off in January 2010 with a team-building event. Teams were made up of students of all ages and disciplines, including law, business, public policy, and design. Teams put their heads together to identify what kinds of problems exist in the Philadelphia area that related to their policy interests and brainstormed for solutions. Workshops followed with various plan components due every couple of weeks. The goal was to turn policy ideas for the Greater Philadelphia region into actual civic campaigns.
In February, teams were whittled down to finalists at a "round robin" judging event. Approximately 30 civic entrepreneurs and public policy experts from the region, among them including leaders from City Hall, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Center City District, and the Reinvestment Fund, were divided into panels of judges. That night, five of the ten teams moved forward in the competition. They are:
Pennsylvania Scholars - A statewide early intervention program to increase college enrollment and graduation.
Engage Philadelphia - A proposal to improve senior citizen access to social services and healthy food.
Educo - A proposal to reduce re-incarceration through improving access to secondary and higher education in prisons and creating early-release incentives.
Land Philadelphia - A regional land bank initiative to improve vacant land management.
The Renewables - A green jobs initiative to attract solar panel manufacturers to the Philadelphia region.
The plan that is the most politically feasible, serves the metropolitan region with the most far-reaching impact, sets realistic goals along a practical timeline, with a viable funding structure will win the prize: $2,500 to donate to a charity of the team's choice and an additional $2,500 in scholarship money to be divided among the teammates.
On Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 9 a.m. at the Center for Architecture, these five teams will present their plans before a panel of seven judges:
According to its organizers, other than prizes given for best-written policy papers, nothing like the Public Policy Challenge has ever been attempted to this scale before at a college or university in the US. "I don't think it's a flight of fancy, but I could see this being a national competition hosted at Penn every year; it has that kind of a sizzle and potential," said Thornburgh. "It's of interest both to the academic and practitioner communities." Plus, it's right on board with the ideals of the man who, about 300 years ago, was responsible for Penn's existence - and putting Philadelphia on the map. "This is kind of like Ben Franklin 101," Thornburgh continued. "He was a business person, a politician, a diplomat, an inventor, a scientist - but at heart, he was a community problem-solver and a community organizer. He had an incredible ability to bring people together and work through the political process to get things done."
As a first-year student at Fels this year, I was eager to participate in the Public Policy Challenge. It has been a challenging but rewarding learning process, and my competitive juices are flowing as I look forward to the finals tomorrow morning. And, I'm proud to be participating in a first-of-its-kind competition like this one that could raise the profile of Fels, Penn, and, ultimately, Philadelphia when it comes to engaging the next generation in the search for solutions to regional policy challenges that affect all of us.
Saturday's finals event at the Philadelphia Center for Architecture is open to the public.
-- Ana Liss, Graduate Research Intern
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