Highlights

Debate News and Our Students' Exposure

The news coverage of Public Policy Leadership majors is too vast to list right away. A few links are possible to post quickly. Here is a CNN article featuring our students, and here is a New York Times article including several of our students as well (see the picture slideshow). We'll post more as these instances of our students' engagement and exposure as they are collected.

New Faculty Hired

Three additional professors will be joining the department of Public Policy Leadership in the fall of 2008. We're excited to have Warigia Bowman, Christian Sellar, and Melissa Bass join our exciting new program. See our "People" page for more information on our new professors coming to Ole Miss.

Senators Lott and Daschle

On September 21st, 2007, students in the department of Public Policy Leadership had the opportunity to have lunch with these two American leaders, after which an open forum was held for the discussion of bipartisanship, leadership, and public policy.

We were also fortunate to have a number of surprise visitors, including Senator Bill Nelson of Florida, Governor Haley Barbour, and former Governor William Winter.

Click here to learn more about this recent event, and to see photos of it. 

Students' Success

Research Recognition

In April of 2008, two PPL students presented papers at Pacific University's Undergraduate Philosophy Conference in Oregon. Scarlett Andrews and Meaghan Gandy wrote their papers in Dr. Eric Thomas Weber's Honors 101 course in the fall of 2007, taught in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Click here for more information on the students' presentation. The department of Public Policy Leadership supported the students' travel to and from the conference. We are proud of these students' early success.

Link to the conference Web site:


On left: Meaghan Gandy.
Top right: Scarlett Andrews.

Also, Scarlett Andrews has been awarded the Rose Bui Scholarship "in recognition of academic excellence." Congratulations, Scarlett!

Summer Internships

Several students in our department have already been chosen for exciting internships. Scarlett Andrews has the following to report about the internship she's lined up for the summer of 2008:

"This summer, I will be interning with Congressman Lincoln Davis of TN. He is a Representative (D) of the 4th District of TN. I will be working Monday through Friday at his office on Capitol Hill. I will hold this position May 26-June 27. I am very excited to be able to see firsthand what type of work goes on behind the scenes in Congress, as well as talking to Congressman Davis and others about their positions. Because the political process is so complex, I hope to come away with a better understanding of how the
system works. This will be helpful to me in my future endeavors, whether I choose to work in the government or not. Of course, I am also thrilled to experience Washington, D.C. for a month. It will be challenging to go by myself, but I plan to seek many exciting experiences while I am there and become a stronger, smarter person."

Hope Merrel, also a freshman in the department of PPL, held an internship for the summer of 2008 with the Gulf Restoration Network.  She worked on the Save Our Cypress campaign in New Orleans in the month of July and the early part of August.

Sophomore Rachel Willis spent the summer of 2008 working as a Campaign Intern for U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (TN-7). Rachel explained that the work included "attending fundraisers and campaign events, walking doors in the GOTV effort, and monitoring polls."

Lott Leadership Exchange Program to South Korea

The Lott Leadership Exchange Program is an opportunity exclusively for rising sophomores who display academic and community leadership. Students will be heading to Konkuk University, founded in 1946, one of the leading private universities in South Korea.  It is located in Seoul, the capital city with a population of more than 10 million people. The Lott Leadership Exchange Program with Konkuk University will be a dynamic and fulfilling opportunity to explore South Korean culture and business with a diverse group of peers. For more information on South Korea, click here.

A group of PPL majors has recently been selected forparticipation in the exchange program.

In the photo from left to right are instructor, Kenneth Townsend, Alex McLelland, Scarlett Andrews, Matthew Henry, Rachel Willis, Rob Hamilton, Emelia Wilson, Trey Nordan, Sarah Rogers, Katie Watson, and Chelsea Caveny.

For more information on this program and the various study abroad programs available through the University of Mississippi, click here.

Public Policy Leadership Students Head to the Conventions!

Click here to learn about Claire Graves, Jake McGraw, Brent Caldwell, and Nickolaus Luckett, who split up to head to the Democratic and the Republican conventions this fall.