 Hello, everyone. Welcome. I am Jennifer Nagemeyer, the Director of Graduate Career Services and Alumni Relations at the Ford School. We're delighted that you are joining us today for this webinar around careers in public policy and the services that Graduate Career Services provides to students to assist in that. So we're going to have an opportunity to hear from four very distinguished alumni, and they're going to share a little bit about their work. They're going to talk a little bit about the impact of their work, how the Ford School prepared them for that, and we'll talk a little bit about the services that Career Services offers to students to assist in your career path. If you choose to come to the Ford School. So we want to hear your questions. So feel free to use the chat room to ask questions. We'll have the panelists talk at first, and then we'll leave some time at the end for those questions. So my hope is that you will feel the love that all of our panelists have towards the Ford School and get a sense of who we are as a school and the community feeling that we have here and how our panelists have grown in their time that they were at Ford and beyond. So I want to thank all the panelists for taking the time to be part of this and I'm going to turn it over to them in a minute. But first I want to share a little bit about what how we think about Graduate Career Services at the Ford School. We talk about our services as providing four main functions. We provide first career information helping you explore what you can do with this policy degree. And then information and then connections right so connected to employers were connected to our alumni. In fact, alumni relations is embedded right within Graduate Career Services because they're such an interrelation and interconnection between our students and and our alumni who stay very much connected to the school. And then we offer lots of strategy. So how do you get from here to there in terms of the tools that you need for applying to jobs in terms of your interviewing skills and negotiation skills and just understanding strategies that may be different in different sectors. And all of that is surrounded by support. So we are supporting students in the highs and lows that are inevitable when you don't get the internship of the job that you really wanted. Or it falls through because of COVID and we will support you and help you find alternate plans and and see opportunities. And then we also provide significant financial support for those of you that are in pursuing the MPP program there is a required internship, and oftentimes those are unpaid and we have quite a bit of support to assist students into fraying some of those costs. I am also involved in the Ford schools leadership initiative and I hope we'll have some time to talk about that as well. But the goal with the leadership if you think about the toolkit that you get through the curriculum here is is one really important aspect of your market ability, but the leadership initiative is also about how you show up with that toolkit. So do you have the emotional intelligence and the self awareness, and the ability to lead self lead others lead institutions with that toolkit. And so we'll talk about that and the panelists will have things to add to that as well. So with that, you have their bios we're going to drop those in the chat if you haven't already seen those seen them. But I'm going to turn it over to the panelists now and I'm going to ask each of them to share a little bit about their current work the organization they're in. What their role is and how they think about the desired impact of what their, what they're trying to do in this work I think one of the things you'll hear is that their career paths and sectors are very different. But the common thread is that everyone is wanting to make an impact in some way and so I'm going to let them share their stories on that. So with that, Megan, I'm wondering if you would start and tell us a little bit about yourself. Sure I'd love to. Hello everyone, welcome. I know I can't see most of your faces but glad you're all here. My name is Megan Nester. I graduated from Ford, I guess a year and a half ago. And since then I've been working as a data analytics and research strategist at worth economy consulting so we're a consulting firm based out of Pittsburgh but we work nationally to support community and economic development. And I get the joy of kind of mixing data analytics and research and strategy in my work, probably largely because of all of the skills I gained at Ford I'm able to do both well, which is great and has let me do this really cool role of the hybrid of both. In terms of the impact of the work. Even before coven I, you know I think part of what drew me to fourth economy was that it was really a an organization that collaboratively works with communities to help, you know, figure out strategies to help them thrive economically and otherwise and with coven we've been. I guess I would say lucky in some sense that we get to been able to work on some really interesting cool impactful project so a lot of communities have come to us with help identifying, you know recovery strategies and ways to help their community get through what coven is bringing to them. So that's been really cool interesting impactful, if not, if not, if not difficult work to do. Thank you and welcome, lose how about you. Hi everyone thank you for having me always happy to come back and talk to 40s and perspective 40s. It, you know, it really is a good place to find and meet people and make friends. You know, everything else in between as well. I am currently the research manager, as well as small business services manager with Wayne County. Economic Development Wayne County is the largest county in the state of Michigan and also home to the city of Detroit, as well as a big chunk of the Detroit metro area. I am managing most of our economic development response to coven so since March have managed a number of small business and service sector grant programs, but you know upwards of $70 million worth of grants to small businesses across Wayne County, currently trying to get through the last push of our CARES Act funds towards service sector employees that have been impacted by the most recent shutdowns of restaurant workers, hospitality entertainment, getting $6 million out to them. And, you know, this work has largely been made possible, both by the skills I gained at Ford, and the connections that I made there that have allowed me to connect with people doing similar work. So, yeah, mostly working in economic development small business support services, since I left for it. Awesome. Thank you. Ali. Hi, everyone. Hi, Jennifer. Thanks so much for having me. My name is Ali Abizid and I am currently a public health advisor at the National Institutes of Health I graduated with my MPP and my MPH from the university in 2017, and was fortunate to have been selected as a management fellow that year. It was, I think a week before Trump's inauguration that I received notice that I was selected. So talk about a really interesting time to join the federal service through the PMF I was, I began my PMF journey at the US Department of Health and Human Services where I've worked in the office of the secretary I've worked at the assistant secretary for policy and administration, which is basically the health policy shop of the federal government. I've worked in the office of refugee resettlements I've worked at the NIH. And I'm just a horribly disciplined person or I guess this put it another way a bit more favorable maybe to myself is I tend to sort of dabble and interdisciplinary work that allows me to see how different pieces meshed and that's part and parcel of my training at the Ford School which is health policy is one thing social policies one thing education policies one thing but to be honest I see those all as central to what I do every day, even at the NIH. And I'm really excited to be working on some just groundbreaking new work to sort of bridge the world of science and policy, especially during this COVID pandemic because I do have the tragic privilege of being at the NIH during this once in a century event and so every day we go to work and we get to work on the pandemic and I think all Americans are better for what we're doing at the NIH and I look forward to sharing a bit more as today goes on so thanks. Claire. All right, so I'll hop in here with more health policy. My name is Claire Hedgensen. I'm currently the associate vice president public policy at Humana, which is a large Medicare Advantage plan. And so today I spent a lot of my time thinking about prescription drugs and also spend a lot of time thinking about the pandemic like most of you. But I think one thing I'll just illustrate in terms of my personal experience at the Ford School was that, you know, obviously lots of opportunities and I think that Ollie said it really well of, you know, different policy areas provide you with different perspectives. And I think that that was one thing that really equipped me well for thinking about my job today and kind of roles that I've played in the past. And I also kind of personally believe that policies only as effective as the individuals who receive the outcomes of those interventions. So upon graduation from the Ford School, I spent quite a bit of time at Accenture and consulting, really thinking about when you change provisions in the Medicaid program or you change provisions in the Medicare program. What does that mean to the individuals who receive those services and how can we operationalize them and implement them in a way that is most effective for them. I'm not necessarily most effective for the system but for the individuals who the system is designed to support. And I think that there were lots of pieces of my Ford School education that really made it possible for me to bring multiple perspectives to the table when having those conversations. And so, I think you've heard from all of us really trying to think about who receives that, you know, the benefit of a particular policy at the end of the day and I really think that that's a lens that I was given from the Ford School. Thank you. You know, it's interesting. I'm sitting here thinking, wow, I wasn't expecting this to be so heavy on COVID. And yet, I'm also thinking, is there anyone else I could have invited that wouldn't be talking about the impact of COVID. And I think the answer to that is no, like, that the reality of that this is a policy that, or this is an issue that policy has needed to address, and that you've all been equipped to be able to adapt and jump on those issues. And needed the world needs this so kind of kind of an interesting outcome in the panel that I wasn't thinking about. So, I want to build on something Lou's said about the value of connections. And like you specifically talked about the people that you met and the value of the all of those opportunities to connect and how that's impacting in your work. And so I'm wondering if each of you can maybe talk a little bit about the sense of what stands out from your time at Ford that's helping you make the difference that you just talked about. What, how did we equip you in whatever ways. Yeah, I think for me definitely some hard and soft skills obtained in the classroom and through good projects but I think particularly the connections especially working in local government. I know people all over the country working for either cities or counties that are managing the same exact response that I'm managing right now. And including as part as a bonnet fellow so I was part of the bonnet fellowship at the Ford School, which is a great program. It did kind of help me put my foot in the door into local government via the internship at the mayor's office which I will tell you the day after I graduated the mayor's office was calling me and saying hey, we need you to come and review for this. And so that was great but also as as this pandemic hit us and I was trying to figure out how to run programs. I knew I could call people all over the country who are doing the same thing and ask, you know, basic things from like hey where are you hosting your grant application to how are you guys interpreting these, these regulations related to the cares and how are you guys using these funds in a very manageable way. And most recently as we were launching our grant program for service workers, we were trying to figure out some questions regarding inclusion of immigrants and kind of the regulations that go into that. And I quickly thought, I actually know someone in the Los Angeles mayor's office from bonnet, and they are doing the same exact thing and, and it's la they have most certainly thought about this. And, and it was a quick phone call it was just having those people all over the country, who, who love to do the same work and they get it. And, and you know that they're going to have some feedback for you. Awesome. Megan. Yeah, I'll maybe talk a little bit about a different kind of connection and how it's impacted my work but like lose I enter, I interned at the Detroit mayor's office in my summer and between my first and second years. And I had the opportunity to work on a feasibility study for universal pre K for the city, which was, which I use like everything I had learned it forward and more to kind of put some of that work together. But what's, what's been pretty cool about my work now is that I've had, I've been able to talk about that opportunity and use it to actually kind of bring in more work for our firm so I just finished an economic impact analysis of the child care industry for Allegheny County where Pittsburgh sits. I've been doing some child care work in Newport Rhode Island and this is all because of, you know, the, this particular work that I did in Detroit that's on my resume that I'm able to talk about and showcase a little bit has been really interesting to potential clients and has been a good way for me to kind of find my niche at my firm as well in terms of what I'm working on. And I'll go next because I'll continue the sort of thread of working in Detroit and what happened afterwards I did my policy internship at the city of Detroit health department. And they didn't want to let go of me in fact I say after my internship ended I ended up doing pro bono work, while I was a 30 or graduate students, helping continue the work that we were doing on infant mortality rates in the city on reversing water shutoffs on and thinking about new modes of refugee resettlement this was in 2016 so right before things sort of got bad for the resettlement regime. You know, beyond that though, having been in the federal government now for about three years. The Ford degree is so marketable and it's something that people know. You know the Ford name sort of ascribe to your resume that they're going to get someone who's really good at a lot of things that could be policy analysis that could be policy writing. That could be on briefing principles, all of those three things I've done, and I've gotten, you know, feedback indicating that this is really good stuff. It's really modesty but we're here to sort of talk about what we're doing and how we're doing it well. And I think it's really important for you all to know that, you know their skills, especially hard skills that you probably gain at any policy school. You know how to write briefs how to sort of differentiate between different kind of analyses for for for briefing principles but I think the distinct difference of the Ford school is how robust a reputation it has. And I think the quantitative element to is something that everyone around the country knows you know at the office of the secretary in HHS. I work, I work with a ton of Harvard grads Johns Hopkins grads and you know these are folks from the Kennedy School from PhD programs. And, and there are so many Ford alums there, which I think speaks to the distinct skills that you gain in terms of being able to translate policy for diverse stakeholders and being able to sort of shine above the fray because you know it's really hard to be in the federal government any place, let alone at a place that is known for its health policy bonfire so I think it's it's really interesting. My experience has been really interesting to see boy you know people really know what the Ford school differences and I've had the great fortune of living that the last few years. I think that with a very actually similar experience so prior to going to the Ford school, I worked in the federal government at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. And as I was weighing my options and thinking about what I wanted to do. One of the things that was really challenging for me was, Hey, do I want to do a part time program, or do I want to do a full time program, and thinking about what that meant not only from my work perspective but my ability to really dig in to a graduate program and you know lots of mentors who I this a long time ago at this point in time 2012, 2011 and 2012 a lot of mentors that are still, you know, great advisors to me today said Michigan go to the Ford school. And that's something that I definitely, you know, don't. It was kind of the best advice that I'd ever been given and then I think kind of more of a personal element that I'll kind of share. I graduated in 2014 and I have a lot of friends that I'm still very close with from the Ford school and I think the one other thing that you may not kind of put on your list in terms of things to think about is the network that you build with your friends. And I think that while some of my closest friends may be doing things in international policy that's totally and completely different from me. They are always great sounding boards for professional advice. And I think that that's another thing that the Ford school network really brings to you as part of your experience is a lot of different people with different perspectives that we can be that I always think of having a professional board of advisors. And so a lot of my four school classmates are on my board of advisors when I'm thinking about different career decisions. And that's something that is, you know, definitely got a lot of hard quantitative skills but I think that it put that in a softer column that's really hard to quantify in terms of the value. And Claire, before you mute there's a question that was dropped in the chat about, did any of you have take certificate programs. But one thing we haven't talked about yet are dual degrees so I'm wondering if you could talk about the takeaways of dual degrees and any of you that have done either certificates or duals. I'm sure all time and I did. I did not do a dual. No, I was a, I was a single degree in, but I, but I will say that one of the things for me that was really attractive about Ford and Michigan was that there are lots of opportunities to take classes in other programs and so I think that that maximizing the value of Michigan is definitely something that is very unique to the Ford schools policy program, as opposed to other places so, you know, if you're really interested in an administrative law for some reason and want to get into the regulatory world, you can go and take a, you know, the leg red class at the law school, I was not brave enough for that but some people were. I took a bunch of different classes at the business school that were really focused on the business of health care so learning about that perspective in addition to the more a policy based perspective also took classes at the School of Public Health brought a clinical lens in so I'm really thinking about as you're trying to pull together the various different, you know, tools that really help the policy area that you're interested in. Think about it in terms of the scale of not only the hard skills and those kind of relationships that you'll build it for but also kind of the value in the power of Michigan which is something that you also can't quantify in a lot of ways. Yeah, yeah, yeah I think I have a mental block right I think of you as public health because I know you took classes up there. So I'm wondering, Megan lose, in particular, can you also speak to that interdisciplinary and certificates or duals. Yeah, I did, I did do a dual masters with applied economics and mostly, you know, did a lot of math that I'm never ever going to do again in my life. It's a very quantitatively heavy program and I think more than anything it's a really good signal anywhere that I go that you can give me all of the numbers and the data and that I will figure it out. And I do that a lot for my team now I'm usually the person who's looking at the numbers and trying to figure out if we're meeting our goals if you know with the grants. And demographically what the distributions looking like what it needs to look like setting targets. So that has been really helpful I will also say like Claire said, you know, having access to so many other schools and program. I did also take a number of courses in urban planning. I took that legal aspects of urban planning class which is supposed to be really hard and it is, but I took it past fail, because I just really wanted to understand it and I can sit there and hold my own now in conversations with planners as someone in economic development. That is so important, and just having taken that class to be able to sit there and say yes I understand zoning and yes I understand all these other things right of ways and all these other things that come into the conversation when we're talking about planning and development in the city. So I think that was really valuable of course as well. Yeah like, like Claire and loose I took, I didn't. I don't have a certificate but I took courses all over the place. So, some schools you've already heard but also I took a graphic design course and the school of information which has been really helpful as I do data visualization. And then I took classes in the school bed and the school of social work, the school of planning and I think in my work now it just it's just not single focus right we're doing lots and lots of different projects, sometimes focused on transportation or maybe utilities so sort of historical urban policy but then there's education work that we're doing and workforce work. So I think certainly having, having taken courses from all over the place and learning from my peers who had previous careers and previous expertise in different industries and different buckets of of policy expertise, have all really helped me kind of be able to not only know a lot, but also kind of know. Okay, if I don't know a little bit about this, I do know how to figure it out. And so certainly, you know, board is interdisciplinary but then also the that was a huge draw for me to Michigan as well was that I'd be able to take courses in some different schools. Awesome. So I want to shift gears a little bit we talked a lot about the toolkit and it's clear you guys are all using it in the impactful work that you are doing. But Ali I'm wondering if you can lead us off in talking about your own leadership development and how how Ford and opportunities helped you grow as a leader. Yeah, I think it's a great question I just to echo Claire's comments I think that the genuine friendships that you develop with your Ford school classmates. It's something that I still tap into and take advantage of you know three years out. Anytime I want to engage in a sort of a robust policy debate I know I can count on my Ford school classmates for that and this genuinely happens you know maybe a couple times a week. I think beyond that there are a couple sort of so I did do a dual degree I did a master's of public health and it's my public policy degree. And as I alluded to I was I was fortunate to have been selected as a PMF. You know Jennifer and the Ford school and the graduate services. This, the support that they offered was just absolutely essential for me to have the kind of experience that I have today in the federal government. And because I have that comparison of the school public health and I love the school public health nothing against them, but the level of support just wasn't the same. After I was selected you know Jennifer reached out maybe within a day or two, and she and others at the graduates career services. They sent me a portfolio of packets of information of people in the federal government that are Ford school alumni, other grads from the university that are alumni. And I landed so many interviews at the State Department across HHS at the EPA, because of those lists that Jennifer provided and so I think the leadership development is just it's really. There's no comparison for it and I know this because I've spoken to others who've, you know, gotten the PMF from other programs around the country. And they just didn't have that level of support they were sort of swimming in the sea without any kind of guidance and I had a huge huge advantage because of the resources that Jennifer and the graduate career services offered. I'm really grateful for that and that's why when Jennifer asks for any kind of support I'm always there because that's the kind of network we have where we support one another at all times and it continues whether it's three years out of grad school or 20 years out of grad school. Others on that, how have you grown personally, and how did Ford help you with that whether it's extracurricular co curricular activities assessments. I'll throw a couple things in there. And so when I was at the Ford school had a lot of different opportunities to be involved outside of classroom, probably more than Jennifer wanted to see me I think on some instances. So two examples that I'll throw out one, just it that applies in my professional life today. So, there's an every year there is a student member of the alumni board. So my second year I was a member of the alumni board. And while at the time I don't think I truly appreciated the experience that I was getting in terms of the exposure of participation on a board. So today, I support kind of one of the senior leaders in my company and his participation in one of our trade association boards. So, at the time I definitely saw it as an opportunity to be involved in the Ford school in a different way to meet alumni through the Ford school but now I kind of take those experiences from participating in those board meetings and think about it and apply it to kind of the work that I do today. So just in terms of, I've got a brief up make sure that my leader is ready to participate in those conversations and provide our perspective and I think that that was really kind of a leadership opportunity that I took as part of my, you know, education and board that really applies in a very different way as part of my work today. So just one example and I think another example is, I think that this is still going there's a partnership with the policy school at the University of Toronto, where every year there's kind of a case competition so to speak between students at the Ford meetings at the University of Toronto and and my second year of graduate school, we went to Toronto which required finding someone to manage the logistics of getting 25 Ford students to Toronto and back. And so while that may seem like a little bit of a bizarre task to call a leadership experience. There's something about having the responsibility of getting your classmates to a place executing the conference and then getting back that really kind of teaches you how to manage large scale efforts, and just, you know, not only from a classroom perspective but taking that back and and saying you know how how would I do this differently learning a little bit more about management in a bit of a weird way in terms of getting people to Canada and back all in one place. Peace. Awesome. Thanks. Anyone else I'll jump in Jennifer, I think this is maybe an interesting way to think about leadership and not quite what you're looking for but I and I saw there was a question in the chat to about locations this maybe ties into that a little bit but I part part of a small part of why I shows the floors will actually not the biggest part was that I was really excited to be back home I'm from Michigan and to get a chance to be near to Detroit and all the really exciting things that were happening there was so many talented smart people working for that community and and ultimately I you see I'm not in Detroit Pittsburgh and had kind of a this is where my husband's from is Pittsburgh and we decided the best thing for our family was to move to Pittsburgh, but it kind of throw a wrench in some of my initial plans. And Jennifer remembers probably some of those long conversations in her office. But I think one thing that really helped me. You know I had built this whole network in Detroit and New York which is where I was before, but Jennifer made some really incredible connections for me there are Ford alums in Pittsburgh there are there everywhere. I think what I really threw a Ford alum is how I heard about the job that I'm in now so direct connection there, but then in on top of that I think I was confident in my ability to reach out to folks and network. So, I did a lot of cold emailing to pretty senior folks in the city so people running organizations senior folks and government to learn about what was happening in Pittsburgh and to kind of get my foot in the door. People were incredibly responsive and I had a lot of coffee with a lot of really interesting senior people who I still keep in touch with and meet in my work all the time. And I think that that that networking and that comfort like comfort with networking comes from some of the skills I got it for but also there were just tons and tons of opportunities to meet folks and we have these like alumni lunches or career roundtables where you'd get to meet alumni and talk to folks, and that really helped to build some of my confidence to and being able to reach out and become well connected in a brand new city. So, a little maybe not exactly the answer you were looking for Jennifer. No, that it absolutely like leaders model the way so the opportunity for us to engage with alumni have students engage with alumni. It's modeling the way in the way that you guys are now modeling for for prospective students on what do you do with this degree and and who could I be be in five years or two years or 10 years. And I think Claire's talking about being involved with the alumni board as well like it gives you that opportunity and we do that. We do that very intentionally through career services with alumni mock interviews alumni office hours. We do something this year called 40 Fridays. And we normally do an annual DC trip, but obviously with coven that is being altered so we're taking the opportunity to go bigger and better in a virtual world and we're going to do three days of career panels and alumni connections and opportunities we're building in a trivia, a four school trivia night that will flow into a, an opportunity to go into any number of breakout rooms on different policy areas. And we're including alums all around the world. So as of right now we've got like six countries represented and, and 15 different US states, alums from different states involved so you know coven has been horrendous. We have used the, the reality of being virtual to see what are the opportunities that we can, can make, you know, come from this. So, yeah, those are all the kinds of programs and so with that I guess I want to ask the panelists as well as part of this was about how about the services of graduate career services. I already alluded to this but are there other things that you tapped into from employers from programs from leadership assessments that added value to your experience from what what graduate career services offers. And so I noted earlier that right after leaving the Ford school. I spent some time in consulting really working with a lot of public sector clients and healthcare clients. And that was an opportunity that was made possible for me by the career center. So, you know, Accenture had come and recruited on campus and I think the really great thing about that was not only did the career center open up the door for that role to become an opportunity for me but because I had a good relationship with the Ford school. Accenture sent me back to do recruiting activities which was another learning and development activity for me as a professional individual. And I got the best of both worlds in terms of not only having the opportunity to have forward set me up with a great career choice that coming out of policy school but also have the opportunity to cycle back around cycle back around on the back end, and learn about kind of different interviewing experiences and things like that because of my connection to the Ford school. I would say the bonnet fellowship was probably the most valuable thing for me in terms of setting myself up for my career after Ford and and graduate career services was was, I think, you know, just incredibly supportive in making sure that my experience was a good one. It's really great if I think bonnet is a great thing for people who actually intend to stay in the city of Detroit. Obviously anyone else, you know it's a great learning experience, but it really helped me put my foot in the door. The other advantage of being in bonnet is it comes a time at Ford where everyone is stressed out about their internship. There's a number of folks who still don't know and you know, rest assured that you will find something you would there is enough support to help you do that. But I remember starting the year and I knew where my internship was. The only other thing that I had to think about was, what did I want to make out of this internship opportunity because internships can be, you know, they can be very exciting and very useful or you can just be kind of writing a report that doesn't go anywhere somewhere in the world. And, and I, you know, I went in and I had already kind of sat down and had a coffee with a few people that I knew in Detroit. And, and I let my manager know I'm like hey you know I know I work for you but I'd really like to work in this other area as well so how can I do both and really setting yourself up to do to go into the areas that you want to go into. And that was really valuable and for provided a lot of that support to help me think through how I find my way because especially being like a first generation college graduate. I from the city of Detroit from the immigrant community they're like I didn't know how to navigate these professional spaces, and I didn't know how to advocate for myself and professional spaces, and for did provide a lot of that support to my peers I had a lot of peers who were like hey this is this is what you say this is what you do. This is how you ask for what you need and that was very valuable. Awesome, thank you. So, um, so let's talk about Detroit and the location issue I know they came up in the chat and I know it's often a question does. You know, if I go to Detroit right if I is if I want to be in California city government is this the right school for me so if you guys can share a little bit about the reach of what you know your classmates are doing and what you've had access to. That'd be great to address some of those questions. So first I'll say that Ann Arbor is probably the best college town in America I mean you can look at the rankings they typically have them near the top I love Ann Arbor it's such a great college time to be. And I mean that's probably obvious I stayed there for three degrees I couldn't pull the way so and Arbor is just such a great town it's such a great place to be. And then I think the proximity to Detroit like you know Claire and lose and others mentioned. It's huge there are so many things happening in Detroit from a policy perspective that you know it makes you want to tap into it I had the opportunity to think about my policy internship. I've been working with the UNHCR the High Commission for refugees, or Detroit Health Department and you know for some people that might be an obvious this was in 2016 so things were a little bit different back then, but for me it was it was really obvious to stay in Detroit and to want to work in that context, because what you gain from a local government perspective is so transferable across so many sectors whether it's global work whether it's national state county work. And then the proximity to so many exciting things in Wayne County in Detroit, and then living in Ann Arbor if that's what you choose to do. Honestly, it's one of the most exciting places to be right now southeast Michigan so I highly highly endorse. And this is for my class who are all over the country. So, and probably also international but I have friends in Denver and in California and in Portland, Oregon, and in Portland main and, you know, of course a good contingent in DC in Chicago as well, but folks are kind of nice and nice and spread out and I think, you know, like I said I'm here in Pittsburgh which you wouldn't think they'd be Ford alum here but there are and I just hired a BA Ford alum to be a staff as well so we're building slowly but surely building the contingent here in Pittsburgh as well. I mean I would say in terms of access to the rest of the world, the University of Michigan as a whole is a force there is nowhere in the world you will go that you that if you were a Michigan shirt you won't find someone who will say go blue. You know I've, I've gone as far as you know Ecuador and the Netherlands in a Michigan hoodie and people are like, Yay. And, and the Ford alumni network is no different we're very tight very connected. Spirit days will always help you find people and you'll be surprised you say they really had a Ford spirit day over there. I'm not surprising, but, but I think the proximity to Detroit to and the University of Michigan continues to build that system of connection. They do have a bus that runs, you know, regularly back and forth and Arbor is great there's a lot to do, but there's also a lot to do in Detroit. I actually as part of my work with Wayne County I'm working on the Detroit Center of Innovation that the University of Michigan has announced they are building in the heart of downtown Detroit. So a whole new area of work around new technologies and fun things that is coming in the years to come. And I will, I will fight anyone over this Southwest Detroit has the best Mexican food in the US. I'm serious. I will help you find it if you need it. And, and I'm sure we can talk about all the other ethnic enclaves that we have in the Detroit metro area serving you know the best food you can find anywhere from African to Mexican to, you know, Asian food. It's, it's all there. It really is an experience and yeah I would love to show people around Detroit if you come up this way. All right, I'm going to take you up on that. We are at time. I don't see any more questions. So I just want to turn it back to the panelists for any last advice you would give to students who are trying to decide whether to apply or if they apply is this the right school for them is the right time. What would you offer from your experience. Yeah, I've been thinking of Jennifer's comment at the onset about how you didn't really think about this as an event that will touch the pandemic but yet, we're all talking about the pandemic and I think the comments that Claire Megan and lose mentioned I think also touch upon the sort of theme today which is just interdisciplinary and flexibility. And I think you know lose mentioned this with the internship opportunities but if you're a prospective student that means you think this is the next step in your career you think this is, you know, good change, good time to change careers or a good time to supplement your career with a really robust degree. I think it's really important to remember that what I think the Ford School does really well as it takes in people from all backgrounds. All sort of competencies and proficiencies and says okay well what do you want to do and I'm someone who started grad school, thinking that I wanted to work in mental health context and refugee camps, you know, in the Middle East and North Africa. It's a passion area of mine but I think the openness of being able to have a skill set that does, I think still allow me maybe next week if I decide to go work in those refugee camps. I think at the same time work at the federal government during a once in a century pandemic. I think is a testament to the kind of skills, perspectives and personalities that you'll meet at the Ford School and I think it starts with the admissions team and Beth, and the career services that Jennifer directs and so I think it's really important to keep in mind that if you're someone who has some certainty over what you want to do or no certainty about what you want to do. School is a really good place to explore your interests and passions and you'll come out on the other end of it better for it. Yeah, one thing that may hopefully can get a sense of from hearing from from all of us is that I think that if you care about making an impact on society and social good I think that that's a huge reason why I chose the Ford School in Michigan I think it's a really big focus and it's part of part of every class that I took and every person that I spoke to they want to do good. And I think that's a really cool unique thing about our program. I know it's a it's a stressful time it's hard decisions to make and it's lots of work but I promise you'll be okay and I think with certainly for me with forward. I got out of it what I put into it so you know I was looking for a network I was looking for skills I was looking for experiences and all of the things that I kind of intentionally set out to to get for myself I did did get and then I know that I had peers and I was looking for classmates who are looking for other things and that's what they got as well so it's really a place. And it's really a cool, you know, grad school is a really unique, cool time to do some, you know, be selfish and think about yourself and do some self work and discover what you want to do and and who you want to serve so I love Michigan go blue. I love that and I went before you guys wrap up I want to add to that that one of the things that we are adding building on what Megan just said is, we are, we are planning to offer all students, all graduate MPP students on the time of their internship, the opportunity to work with a leadership coach in the time that they are out on that assignment. Right for that very reason of helping to put together the tools and the who right the how the how am I showing up at work. I was super excited about that. And it's it's pretty innovative. And I have the joy of putting that all together and finding coaches for 100 students. And, and actually like I'm totally geeked about doing that. So, if you choose to come here we are hopeful that that will be continuing in next year as well. Be jealous, be jealous. Other closing advice. Yeah, I would say, I think that there's a place in the Ford school for almost everyone like if you're really set and you think you know and you know what you're doing, or where you want to go. It'll help you kind of go deeper into that place if you're trying to figure it out. It's a really good place to figure out what you want to do and dabble in different things and, you know, do internships or whatnot. And if you think you know what you want to do. I think it's a good chance that you will come in and you know change your mind or find something else or just go in any direction like all you said, you know, you could. I also work in the immigrant rights space as well as economic development and I have switched back and forth so many times. So seamlessly one day I'm running an immigrant, you know, ID program. You know, another year I'm working on grants for small businesses. And I think into the future as I develop those things I'm learning how to merge them together and work at the intersection of immigrant rights and economic development. And so there really is room for you to find yourself, or, you know, go deeper into what you love if you already found it. And, you know, everybody said a lot today. And I couldn't agree more great like advice across the board. So I think the one thing that I would say is clearly, you know, all of us got really versatile education at the Ford School. I think that's one of the skills that's lots of different perspectives. And I think the advice that I've gotten in the past is really look at those classes that are available what are you going to be learning in the classroom and then think a lot of us have shared a lot of personal tidbits and I think that's something that you can put into your decision making matrix but what makes you excited. And you should really kind of look at the class list, you should take anything that you heard today you should go surf LinkedIn see what people from the Ford School are doing. And I think that those will all give you some ideas as to kind of what your opportunities would look like coming out of the Ford School and I think you heard a lot from us about your experiences and totally echo this is a difficult time to be thinking about what's going on because it seems like we're in a really tough spot and then it may not change for a while but I think trying to think about what future you want is also really part big important part of this discussion. And so think about that as you're trying to weigh what your options are and what's next thing for you to do. Thank you you guys have so much wisdom. I can't thank you enough for participating today and sharing your stories and just incredible amount of impact that the four of you are having on the world and all of you involved in COVID responses in different ways so totally totally appreciate your support like you know claps to all of you applause to all of you. And for those of you out there thinking about forward and applying I just encourage you to get in the game right apply and see what happens. You can decide. I know if you're admitted you can decide then but if you don't move forward with the application is not going to happen. It's all everyone's career unfolded incrementally and just thinking about what are the first steps that I need to be taking and hopefully today gave you some insight into what folks do with this degree and why Ford is what stands out for all of them about why Ford was a good place. So, I think we'll stay on for a little bit longer, but I want to be sensitive to time we already ran over a little bit yes happy holidays to everyone, and hopefully we'll be hearing from some of you soon in your applications. Alright, well. How's it going. How's vaccine distribution or what can you tell us, Ali. I am feeling so hopeful I mean I've been sort of I have a hop in my step the last couple weeks because of the news with the vaccines and actually the news was even so nice to hear. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's just such a dark time but I'm feeling really motivated and I think we should get to herd immunity. It's a really dark time, you know, summer or late summer 2021 so we might have a normal summer guys. Are you giving us tips on when to book our next flight. I can't officially endorse that I should have started off with this situation. I represent myself you're not the NIH but I am feeling very hopeful about a normal, at least fall 2021. I'm here here at Wayne County that we have an allotment coming in over the weekend but still very small still thinking of how do we cover our essential workers are health care workers first and apparently government employees are going to be up there in in the group of essential people at some point so let's see how that goes. Maybe I'll be on a beach by March. Oh my mom she's in an assisted living and it's basically been in lockdown and I just it's been brutal. That's what I that's my hope. Claire, Claire disappear. Oh, she must have jumped off. I'm still here. Oh, there you are. Claire what are you hearing on the human side. I think I'll leave really subbed it up I mean fall. And this is me personally speaking but like, I think there's a natural inflection point around September so that's what I'm. I'm at least hoping for, but it'll be interesting when the second vaccine gets administered because that one's a lot easier to manage. So, we'll keep our fingers crossed for for Moderna to come through at the end of this week. Yeah, awesome. Jaleel do you want to jump on or put your question in a chat either fine. I can, I can just speak if that's okay. So I have a question for Ali. You've mentioned that you've had an experience like working in the Middle East and north of Africa. I'm really planning on personal and MPP on the field of international policy and focusing on the current conflicts in Yemen and there was really conflict as well. So it's really like if you can touch on how would like the international center program at the Ford School would help on focusing on like the political side of the conflicts there aside from the humanitarian one. Like, like since you've already like had like a touch over the region over there. I mean, I think there are so many professors at the Ford School John Chichari comes to mind his class was just so influential and thinking about geopolitical issues and how they impact you know health and education and so I think there's such a there's such a wealth of knowledge at the Ford School and I think I was necessarily involved with the international development group. If one does exist Jennifer maybe you can clarify, but I, you know everything that I do is sort of making the local global making the global local. Susan waltz was one of my mentors at the Ford School. She's someone who's had extensive experience in the Middle East and so she and I talked a lot about my experiences and been on and Turkey and Jordan. And I think that there's just such a wealth of resources, especially with the professors there. I did my public health internship in Lebanon working in the refugee camp so I think that context of being able to think about what foreign policy is for social policy is something that will become a lot more robust with the Ford School training so highly encourage you to recommend highly encourage you to reach out to reach out if you have anything that you want to talk about more personally. Thank you so much for that. That that This is going to be a trivia question for the trivia contest so the alums you're going to get the answer to this but the number that the federal agency with the greatest number of Ford School alums is the State Department. It's not what people would have naturally thought right hhs comes up because hhs is so big, but we have more alums in in state, both in the foreign service and the civil service than any other agency which is is, it speaks to the strength of the government that wasn't represented in the immediate career paths of folks now but it's it is huge. And actually I can think of an alum that was with USA ID who was on assignment in Yemen for a couple of years. I think because Yemen is where I was born and raised and one of the things that I really like motivates me for going to the fourth school is actually tackling this. Like it's it's it has been labeled like as the worst humanitarian crisis and I really want to see how like working with other students at the fourth school and see what's their perspective on tackling these foreign policies and what what what actual policies we can we can do to kind of like tackle this humanitarian humanitarian issues that we see in the Middle East. But yeah thank you guys so much and I'll reach out to like I can't remember exactly what's his name Ali, the professor that you've mentioned his name. I think take a look at the International Policy Center on the website and the John Chicharris the director there, but those the faculty that are involved in IPC. Sure thing. Yeah. Thank you so much guys I truly appreciate that. You bet. Absolutely. All right, well thank you guys so much I guess we will wrap it and it's just so always so good to see you all. So good to see you thanks so much for the invite. Thank you. And be involved in the career expo and the trivia night. Now you know. Thank you. Take care. See you soon. Bye.