Twelve Graduate Students Named
Rappaport Summer Public Policy Fellows
Students from Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, Tufts, Brandeis, and UMass-Boston will work with State and Local Officials on Housing, Healthcare, and Other Issues.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 21—The Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston has awarded Rappaport Summer Public Policy Fellowships to 12 graduate students from seven local universities. The fellows will spend 10 weeks working on projects for public agencies and elected and appointed officials. They will also help design and carry out a seminar series for their colleagues on key issues facing the region.
The 2007 fellows, chosen from more than 80 applicants, will work on such issues as health care reform, economic development, affordable housing, and special education for, among others, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, state Sen. Jarrett Barrios, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and the Boston Public Schools.
This summer’s fellows are James Barrett and Leah Bowe of the University of Massachusetts at Boston; Corey Kurtz of Tufts University; Rebecca Lobb, Matthew Mayrl, Audrey Morse, Semil Shah, and Christina Weiland of Harvard University; Katherine Moloney of Northeastern University; Benjamin Solomon Schwartz and Amanda Stout of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Hannah Thomas of Brandeis University.
Now in its seventh year, the fellowship program encourages graduate students interested in public policy to spend part of their professional careers in state or local government, ideally in Greater Boston. Approximately half of former fellows currently hold public-sector jobs and have remained in the region working in such entities as Boston’s budget office, the Boston School Department, the city of Somerville’s Office of Strategic Planning, and the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
The Rappaport Institute, based at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, aims to improve the governance of the region by strengthening ties between scholars, students, and public officials. The institute was founded and funded by the Jerome Lyle Rappaport Charitable Foundation, which promotes emerging leaders in Greater Boston.