Learning to serve

Glenn fellows inaugurate D.C. intern program

Ohio State students are gaining firsthand knowledge of politics and public service in the heart of the nation's capital as part of the inaugural class of the Washington Academic Internship Program.

Sponsored by the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy, the program selects outstanding undergraduates from any major to spend a quarter in Washington, D.C., as John Glenn Fellows. Students work in field placements that reflect their particular areas of academic interest, such as Capitol Hill, federal departments and agencies, policy centers, international organizations, and art and history museums.

The internship program is one of the institute's major student-centered activities, joining a Living Learning Center, public service speaker series and enhanced internship opportunities at the local and state level, said Herb Asher, interim director of the Glenn Institute.

"We are very pleased to have established this new Washington, D.C., internship program for Ohio State under the leadership of Dr. Elizabeth Boles,"Asher said. "It will provide our students with a unique academic and field experience."

Boles headed a similar program for the University of California, Berkeley, for four years before joining the political science faculty at Ohio State. Besides helping the students locate quality internships, she teaches a research seminar and policy course that the students attend while in Washington.

Boles said the program gives interns a glimpse of the richness of public life. "The overall goal of the program is to expose students to the Washington policy community and encourage them to think about a future that includes a commitment to public service,"she said, adding the program also will instill in interns "a more nuanced sense of politics and public policy."

Spending a quarter in Washington allows students to "live"their courses. "Students have a unique opportunity to make their coursework come alive in Washington,"Boles said.

The program will be offered during the fall, winter and spring quarters. Students pay their normal tuition, and those who receive financial aid continue to do so while participating in the program -- with adjustments made to compensate for the increased cost of travel and living in Washington.

Eight students from a variety of majors are now in Washington serving as John Glenn Fellows, but Boles hopes to double the size of the class in the fall. To do that, she said she wants to spread the word across campus and generate a larger pool of applicants.

The application process requires at least one faculty recommendation, a writing sample and a statement explaining why the student is interested in the Washington internship. To be eligible, students must have completed 90 credit hours with a minimum 3.0 grade point average. It is open to any major.

Lindsey Boyer, a junior majoring in economics and speech and hearing science, is interning approximately 32 hours per week at Families USA Foundation, a nonprofit health policy organization.

"It fits right in with my career goal, which is public health,"Boyer said.

So far, her duties have included editing publications, compiling a report on how each state's children's health care organizations handle health care policies, and assisting with a demonstration that was presented at the White House on how rising drug costs affect the elderly. She attended the briefing with President Clinton and visited the Oval Office.

Boyer said she is gaining valuable experience in public health at the federal level that Columbus can't offer. In addition, the networking opportunities in Washington have been plentiful.

Sarah Platka, a senior international relations major, is learning about Washington and how government works while interning at the National Endowment for Democracy. She attends and reports on congressional hearings, identifies possible sources of grants for the endowment, and is helping to coordinate an awards banquet at the Slovak ambassador's home in Washington. She said she has made valuable contacts in the process.

"I will be graduating soon, and I think those contacts will be instrumental in obtaining a job in Washington,"she said.

She also hopes the experience will help her narrow down her career choices. "I'm looking for my life's passion -- something that I will enjoy doing day in and day out,"she said.

Darrin Smella, on-campus program coordinator for the Washington Academic Internship Program, said the first class of interns is representing Ohio State well in Washington. "Nurturing active citizenship is a goal of the John Glenn Institute, and these students are a reflection of that,"he said.

The Glenn Institute was established in September 1998 to position Ohio State to play a more significant role in national public policy debates by stimulating and sharing the research and scholarship conducted here with policymakers at all levels of government; to provide expanded academic and public service experiences for Ohio State students; to enhance the capabilities of current public officials and public employees through training sessions on various aspects of governing; and to examine and foster commitment to public service throughout Ohio and the nation.

For more information, contact Smella at JGI-DC@admin.ohio-state.edu, or Boles at boles.16@osu.edu.

Recruitment, research linked to graduate education choices

The statistics tell a lot about the Graduate School story at Ohio State. With nearly 10,000 students and 120 programs -- including 92 that offer Ph.D.s -- Ohio State's is one of the largest graduate schools in the country.

The University also produces 2 percent of all Ph.D.s in the United States and 1 percent of public university master's degrees nationally, as well as almost one in four of the master's degrees and 43 percent of the doctoral degrees earned at Ohio's public institutions.

Behind the numbers, however, are thousands of individual stories about graduate education at Ohio State -- what brings students here, what keeps them here, and what they do while they're enrolled. And research, much more often than not, is a key element of the graduate experience.

"Graduate education binds with research,"said William Clark, associate dean of the Graduate School and professor of materials science and engineering. During a recent presentation to the University's Board of Trustees, Clark noted two major benefits of a strong graduate research program: production of the next generation of creative, talented people shaping society, and the payoffs for society provided by the solved problems and progress resulting from the actual research performed at the University.

Interim Vice President for Research Keith Alley noted that the fruits of graduate education extend far beyond the academy as more and more Ph.D. recipients seek employment in government and business. He also emphasized the influential nature of the pursuit of advanced degrees, pointing out that the graduate educational paradigm -- centering around problem-solving and writing -- is increasingly adopted in other areas, including undergraduate education. Finally, he noted the importance of the personal experiences created by the link between graduate education and research as faculty advise and mentor students throughout their graduate school careers.

"This is the elixir of life. Students keep faculty going strong and thinking in a young fashion,"he said.

Elliot Slotnick, also an associate dean of the Graduate School and professor of political science, said excellence in graduate education "must start with excellent faculty who, in turn, attract excellent students."

An excellent faculty member factored into Peter Collins' decision to pursue a Ph.D. in materials science at Ohio State. During his decision-making process, Collins noticed that Hamish Fraser, Ohio Eminent Scholar in High Temperature Materials, had served as an adviser or mentor to five advisers he was investigating at other universities. That fact combined with the presence of the Center for the Advanced Maturation of Materials sold him on Ohio State.

Recruitment efforts also can make a big difference in students' selection for graduate school. Slotnick, who oversees the Graduate School fellowship competition, said graduate recruitment is especially critical and complex because of the cross-country and global nature of the search for the best students. He noted that annually, there is stiff competition among candidates for the various assistantships and fellowships that factor into the students' graduate education selection process.

John Rogers Harris, a first-year doctoral student in the Department of Theatre, is supported by a multiple-year Dean's Graduate Enrichment Fellowship, awarded to eligible students who will contribute to the diversity of the Graduate School, and is a Roy A. Koenigsnecht Graduate Alumni Fellow. His portfolio includes live performance since age 13, production of a world premiere about an abolitionist leader in Canada, and public affairs service during Operation Desert Storm.

"I am here because Ohio State's graduate school measured the totality of my life in preparation for graduate school,"he said. "I would not be able to follow my dreams at OSU without assistance."

Slotnick described Jennifer Cognard-Black as a good example of a student who "fully took advantage of what Ohio State has to offer, and gave so much back through her work in the classroom."

Cognard-Black, who received her Ph.D. in English in 1999, was a Preparing Future Faculty fellow, participating in a competitive mentorship program in teaching excellence at liberal arts colleges. She also was an award-winning presenter at the Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum, received a Graduate Associate Teaching Award and received two awards that supported dissertation research: a Presidential Fellowship and a Graduate School Alumni Research Award. After an exhaustive employment search, she found her niche in a teaching position at a liberal arts college.

"It's really this training in teaching and research at Ohio State that has been integral to my success on the academic job market,"she said.

Lecture explores pessimism

There's little doubt that pessimistic people have trouble coping with life's challenges. But research suggests that pessimistic people also tend to misjudge others as inadequate or otherwise poor performers.

Gifford Weary, professor of psychology in Ohio State's social psychology program, will present a University Distinguished Lecture examining pessimism at 4 p.m. May 24 in the Wexner Center Film/Video Theater. "Pessimism and the Perception of Others"is the second in the University's Distinguished Lecture Series this academic year. A reception will follow the lecture, which will be broadcast live via the Internet.

Weary's research focuses on the influence of various cognitive and motivational influences on conscious and unconscious social perception processes.

Her scholarship, which has resulted in six books and more than 75 articles and chapters, concerns two major areas: the role of self-esteem and control motivation in social judgment processes, and the impact of chronic and temporary expectancies on conscious and unconscious inferences about another's behaviors.

During the lecture, Weary will explore the notion that chronically pessimistic people make initial automatic, negatively biased assessments of another's performance of a task. She'll also note that such assessments can change when pessimistic people are motivated to be more thoughtful and thus willing to correct for the influence of their pessimism.

Finally, Weary will share research that focuses on possible techniques to avoid bias among those experiencing chronic and temporary pessimism.

"This research contributes to our basic understanding of the way in which people judge the causes and adequacy of another's performance," Weary said. "It also has important implications for the promotion of human potential."

Such pessimism can have a broad reach, Weary noted: Some pessimistic people are so distracted and unmotivated that they can't get past their negative biases about others, which can affect countless everyday interactions.

"The magnitude of the costs potentially associated with such biased perceptions cannot be overestimated,"she said.

An Ohio State faculty member since 1978, Weary received the University's Distinguished Scholar Award in 1984, has been elected to fellow status in five professional organizations, and is a recent past president of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from Vanderbilt University and her B.A. from the University of Kansas.

The University Distinguished Lecture Series, inaugurated in 1996, recognizes senior faculty members for outstanding academic achievement, particularly in research, scholarship or creative activity. The President's and Provost's Advisory Committee reviews nominations and recommends candidates to the president and provost for final selection. The recognition gives faculty the chance to discuss their work with the community as well as a $5,000 award from the Office of Academic Affairs to support an academic program or project of the lecturer's choice. Weary's award will support Ohio State's graduate training program in social psychology.

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