SPAA Pulls Out All The Stops for Public Service Recognition Week 2019 (PSRW)
From May 5-12, the School of Public Affairs and Administration (SPAA) celebrated Public Service Recognition Week – a nationally designated period to acknowledge, celebrate, and express gratitude to the nation's civil servants for their dedication, service, and stewardship. SPAA Director of Public Engagement Sharon Stroye, in collaboration with Distinguished Research Fellow Marilyn Rubin, put together a series of events and activities meant to engage all members of SPAA and Newark communities to show how #SPAAisPublicService. SPAA’s slate of PSRW events involved students, community partners, alumni, faculty, and staff in order to honor the federal, state, county, and local government and nonprofit employees who tirelessly serve our communities.
#SPAAisPublicService Media Galleries
On Monday, May 6, Central Ward Councilwoman LaMonica McIver kicked-off the PSRW celebration with remarks on the importance of being involved in the community – a perfect message from someone so heavily involved in her own community. SPAA has long recognized the City of Newark’s leadership as integral thought partners, and previously invited former Mayor Cory Booker and former Central Ward Councilman Darrin Shariff to participate in the kick-off event.
Later that evening, SPAA partnered with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) for a poster board presentation and reception. As two leading anchor institutions in the City of Newark, NJPAC and RU-N have formed a collaborative partnership to further enhance their relationship. One aspect of the NJPAC/RU-N partnership is to integrate NJPAC into a course every spring semester. Spring 2019 was SPAA’s second offering of that integrated course taught by Adjunct Professor Michael Dillard. During the “Public Service Organizations” course, SPAA students formed groups, and each group acted as a consultant to one NJPAC Department. The groups met with vice presidents and staff from their respective departments – either Human Resources, Finance, Arts Education, Marketing and Development, or Community Engagement – and gave recommendations on how each department could increase effectiveness and community engagement. As a part of their final assignment and exam, each group showcased their understanding of managing large nonprofit organizations with a poster board presentation to NJPAC’s executive leadership, including CEO John Schreiber.
On Tuesday, May 7, SPAA hosted the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (NJASPA) Awards Ceremony. Each year, NJASPA honors those who have made important contributions to public service. The host institution rotates each year, but RU-N and SPAA had the distinct honor of both hosting the ceremony and having trained two of the award winners this year. Newark Councilwoman and Council-President Mildred Crump (EMPA’09) was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. Crump was the first woman to serve as Council President for the City of Newark and was recognized for her life-long service to the city. Chelsea Gioffre (MPA’19) was one of four individuals who received the Student of the Year award.
During the afternoon of Wednesday, May 8, SPAA collaborated with The Dream Project, a nonprofit organization, to host an information session on a fundraising East Coast Bike Ride in summer 2020. The Dream Project started in 2013 with five Rutgers University students who biked from NJ to Disney World in Orlando, Florida to raise awareness for pediatric cancer patients, and grew into a fundraising organization for young adults by promoting service and civic engagement through adventure-based trips. The information session was held to recruit students interested in committing to a year of fundraising and service before biking from New Jersey to North Carolina for the Dream Project’s summer 2020 trip where all proceeds will go to a Newark nonprofit.
The evening of May 8, SPAA hosted a SPAA Faculty Call to Service Roundtable. Adjunct Professor Michael Dillard, Assistant Teaching Professor Rachel Emas, Associate Professor Suzanne Piotrowski, and Associate Professor Yahong Zhang participated in a discussion on their call to service in the field of academia. They discussed what it means to work at SPAA, and engaging in and preparing future leaders for the field of public administration, including nonprofit administration leadership, government, and philanthropy.
Piotrowski shared how she prepares SPAA students to work in government: "Giving public service students a framework and language for understanding ethical issues is vitally important. In the MPA class I teach on administrative ethics, we spend a lot of time discussing conflicts of interest, conflicts of authority, and role conflicts. Working in the public sector isn’t easy, but understanding potential ethical pitfalls is crucial."
On Thursday, May 9, SPAA hosted an Alumni Panel to engage alumni in a discussion on their career journeys after graduation. SPAA aimed to strengthen the relationship between current and past students and encourage alumni to take on mentor roles and facilitate internship and employment opportunities for current students where possible. The panel participants represented a range of career options available in public affairs and administration and included alumni from each of SPAA’s academic programs, the Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Public and Nonprofit Administration, the 5-Year Dual Bachelor’s Degree/Master of Public Administration Degree (BA/MPA), the Master of Public Administration (MPA), the Executive Master of Public Administration (EMPA), and the PhD in Public Administration. The moderator and panelists were:
- O'Neil Madden (MPA'17), Moderator
VP for SPAA Alumni Network - Instashan Chowdhury (BA'17, MPA'19)
Borough Administrator, Prospect Park - Natasha Hemmings (MPA'16)
CEO, Girl Scouts Heart of NJ - Jason Martinez (EMPA'17)
Director, Youth Services Commission, Essex County, NJ - Lauren Bock Mulllins (PhD'12)
Assistant Professor, Long Island University - Kanwal Sajjad (BA'15)
Law Clerk, McCurrie, McCurrie, & McCurrie LLC
On Friday, May 11, SPAA hosted the first of two community service projects and invited 30 students from two Newark High Schools; 15 students from Barringer Academy of the Arts & Humanities and 15 students from West Side High School. During the session, the students learned from Dr. Rubin about being a public servant in their community before breaking up into mixed groups. The groups of the students and high school staff participated in several interactive activities where they built their own communities and managed budgets and supplies for those respective communities. The students were tasked with deciding what each of their communities needed and explaining their rationale.
SPAA wrapped up PSRW 2019 on Saturday, May 12 with a donation drive for Three Stages Learning Center, a local daycare that experienced a fire on April 3. There were no injuries, but the learning center lost supplies and the building was damaged. SPAA partnered with Newark fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi to collect school supplies, tissue, soap, and other small items to support the daycare’s recovery from May 1-11, and Dean Charles Menifield, local residents, and others delivered the supplies on May 12.