Political Science Virtual Information Session

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OK, let's get started. I'm Steve Farnsworth. I'm a professor of political science at the University of Mary, Washington Ann. I'm going to talk a little bit today about the political science major at University of Mary Washington. We've had a chance to have some of you sign in, and there's the opportunity to use the text system to ask questions along the way. So we will get started right now with this. Basically, let me give you an overview of what will.

Talk about I have some power point slides here. We will generally cover an issue about why Mary Washington is a good place to study. Political science will also have an opportunity to introduce some of the faculty in terms of their background and then well of course have a discussion about what it's like to be a student at Mary Washington in terms of what we do in the major. What sort of issues there are with respect to internship, San careers, including Graduate School and will also be able to answer questions.

Along the way, and at the end I should also draw your attention to the fact that the political science program also has an interdisciplinary major in international affairs, and that program will be discussed in a separate conversation like this tomorrow at 4:00 o'clock. Now, some of our political science majors, also major in international affairs. If they have a particular regional area that they want to really focus on and to go beyond political science, taking courses in that region in history or geography or other.

Not related social science disciplines, so to talk about what we do in this major, we have a great opportunity to study political science through our location because we're halfway between Washington and Richmond, were able to get a lot of opportunities for students through internships and also through guest speakers on campus. And so it's a great opportunity to.

To move through the program and get experiences that are really, really extraordinary, just in the last couple of years, we've had senator Tim Kaine on campus senator Mark Warner. We had the speaker of the House of delegates. We've had the local congressman, and then, of course, we had other people. Sometimes, recent graduates have spoken about their own experiences making that transition from college to the professional world. We also really are committed to excellence in the Department because our classes are quite small. The average upper level class has.

Fewer than 20 students. You have a chance to work very closely with professors who are experts in the given areas of interest of yours, and so one of the ways that we can demonstrate this beyond me. Just saying that we're strong Department is the fact that our majors have won so many writing awards from ? Sigma Alpha. This is the National Political Science Honor Society, and we have one more awards for Outstanding Student Research, both at in course papers and in in honors projects.

Than any other school in the country, and so and so these graduates of these programs have gone on to great careers in politics and law in business. The diploma, diplomatic core and of course community service of various types.

Now we do as I mentioned, have two basic areas of major programs, one political science, 1 international affairs, the course of security and conflict studies is a minor program that you can also do as part of the major. Generally speaking, that matches up more closely with with the International Affairs program, but some of our political science majors do that as well.

We have a number of awards to the two dimension in terms of students have really done well, not only the national writing awards for Pi Sigma Alpha, but also awards that relate to individual excellence in the students in the Department, and so those are opportunities to talk about those things as well. In terms of the.

Other Department again. It's important to recognize that we have a lot of people who have had a great deal of experience. One of the great things about our location around Washington, not only for students who want to do internships and work with the governor's office or work on Capitol Hill, but also the faculty here. Many of us have connections to Washington and many of us have worked in international programs or domestic programs of some interest. Our Department chair, for example John Kramer.

He I'm studies Eastern Europe, in particular, the Soviet successor states of former states of the Soviet Union, Russia, Ukraine, and so on, and he's been involved in Anti corruption programs with the US government. Are incoming chair starting next year. Doctor Laura's is an expert in the politics of China and Taiwan and she's off and gone to China and Taiwan to talk and to study. She's currently serving as a Fulbright scholar in Poland this spring.

Our doctor Cooperman, who studies women in politics as well as the US Congress. She was the recipient of the best best paper in political science in the political parties and organizations area. Again, national recognition for Mary Washington Scholar Professor Davidson, who studies the International Security US foreign policy. He was one of the recipients of the outstanding faculty award.

For the entire college as a as a new professor, I teach in the area of mass media in the US presidency, looking in particular at the President Prospect PA process of presidential communication, my colleague, Doctor Gupta, who is also program director of the women and Gender Studies program. She teaches international political economy and as an expert particular in the politics of India.

The.

Our political theorist in the Department is doctor Amelie Lester who teaches a political philosophy and religion and politics. He has received a grant from the Newseum to study the process of how of how news covers religion and politics and how it's covered in the educational system. Doctor Singh Ranjit Singh is our expert in the Middle East. He worked for an NGO in the region for years his his expertise is on the issues of democratization.

In the region we also have Melissa Martinez on an assistant professor who is just starting with us. This was her first year in 2019 and 2020 should be.

Offering courses in Latin American politics and human rights. And So what we have here is a range of things that you want to study. But these are just the full time faculty. The people you spend the most time with. We also have individual faculty members who've been hired just to teach a particular course in areas of national security, nuclear weapons proliferation. Alot of these things. Of course, we can take advantage of because we're so close to the US we can get lawyers teaching.

Constitutional law courses. We can get people in an on hit on the Hill to talk about their areas of expertise. Lots of opportunities for you to figure out what you want to do, because ultimately the choices that you make a really what we can can help you with. Some people are more interested in the International Development areas. Some people more interested in domestic areas, but again we can offer all these possibilities and one of the things that's really great about our location is that you don't have to take a semester off.

To do a Washington internship, my undergraduate degree is from Dartmouth and if I wanted to do a semester in Washington, I would have had to take a whole semester. Of- would have to rearrange my schedule around. Had to find a place to live away to make some money and really sort of rearrange things in a very complicated way. At Mary Washington, a lot of our students who do internships in Washington, an Richmond, they figure out a way to stack their classes on say Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

They work for the day in Richmond or in DC, and because of our location were also at the end of a commuter train line. the Virginia Railway Express that allows students to avoid the horrific traffic that you sometimes see between Fredericks, Burg, and Washington.

When you think about our classes, recognize that they are all taught by professors there. People that are teaching assistants at some schools, and they're going to do a lot of your teaching freshman year, but not with us. We are committed two people having expertise in their fields, an being experienced professors, and in fact as a Department. We have more faculty members who have one more campuswide teaching awards than any other Department on the campus. When you think about.

About what people can gain from these classes, I want to draw your attention back to this idea of these small school experiences. Because the classes are under 20 students in the upper level, you really do have a chance to talk with the professor. You really it forces you to take your work seriously, but it also creates lots of opportunities and one of the things that we notice with our graph.

So it is that the key for their success in getting that first job and then the jobs that follow is how able how capable they are of being articulate. Are they? Do they have strong verbal presentation skills? Do they have the ability to write affectively and because these classes are small, we require a lot of writing. We require a lot of conversation in class. These things add up to a very significant opportunity for people to.

To to build those skills that are going to really matter. I can't tell you how many times people have come back to the campus of said I got that job because I took courses in what we call writing intensive or speaking intensive dimensions courses that really focus on developing those skills as well as the content for the course at hand.

And just on this slide, you can see the number of internships that people have done, particularly in Washington, in Richmond during the summer. Of course, sometimes students will go much further afield for internships, sometimes international internships with the State Department or NGOs, but opportunities in a range of places to be be be getting. That's those skills that you need to make things successful in the world.

Making this transition from being a student to having a professional karere one of the students that we thought we could give you an example of this is somebody who really got involved in these questions of adoption. Tyler actually graduated from Mary Washington in December, and so he went straight to work for the Amy Clover shar campaign in New Hampshire, and so he had the opportunity to work on a presidential campaign doing field work, knocking on doors.

For the Clover Shar campaign, right after he graduated and his and although in Clover, shar is not still running for president, she's she backed out a few weeks ago. You do see him now working on the Van G Williams campaign for Congress. She's a local candidate for Congress in our part of Virginia, so there are lots of opportunities and the kind of networks that we have with our alums are really great. One of the things that I've always thought has been one of the great assets that I have is a professor at Mary Washington.

Is the ability to talk to students who've been out a few years?

And when they have opportunities when they have internships when they have those sorts of activities, those are the things that allow for extraordinary connections. In fact, the reason one of the reasons why Tyler I was able to get such a great great work experience right out of college is because a former student of mine was also working on the Ami Club are shark campaign and I put the two of them connected. The two of them together so that he was able to get that kind of connection. And Mary Washington alums tend to be very loyal. One of the things.

I think that we really have had worked very well for us. Is that opportunity to speak to those connections? And so as students are looking out for the next generation of students, that really makes our job that much easier. And it also makes it easier for you when you think about getting that first job, because that's the hard part of any kind of experience.

We also have the opportunity for students who are interested to do undergraduate research projects. Students will work with faculty members on, maybe on a research paper. Maybe they'll be a collaborator or a coauthor. Maybe they'll do individual projects of their own. I've had two students work with me on a book that I just finished called late night with Donald Trump. I'm interested in presidential humor in late night. Comedy is one of my areas of research, and two of the students helped me with that and.

Each of them is a Co author of one of the chapters. In the book. There's also opportunities for independence studies for students to do their own independent research project about something that really, really interest them. I have two students working with me this semester. For example, one of them is working on the politics of the Affordable Care Act. The so called Obama care. It was really interested in sort of presidential leadership and how Obama was able to succeed in getting that process of passage through Congress accomplished.

And why was that president trump failed when it was his effort to try to secure the end of Obama care? He wasn't able to convince Congress to stop the Affordable Care Act.

And so, and so these opportunities are really great. I think opportunities for the students who are really motivated. I think that sometimes one of the disadvantages of bigger schools is that it's very easy to to sit in the back, do your classes, and maybe not engage as much. Believe me, school like this is a place where you can be can be engaged not only with professors. Research on this campus, but also in some cases with National Research activities. This particular slide as a.

Collection of six students who presented their research at the National Political Science Honor Society conference in Washington in February, and these students are talking about a variety of international and domestic issues, and so there are great opportunities for you to to work through whatever issues that might interest you. We have. In addition to the Honor Society, there are a number of student clubs. We have an active college Democrats organization, an active young Republicans organization.

We have students who are interested in pre-law the opportunity. There, of course, is also to be heard as we have that opportunity for you too.

Prepare for whatever career it is that you might not want. It might want to get involved in next. We also have a pretty vigorous student government organization where students were able to work through issues of concern, causes they care about.

There are also. There's also an international relations organization that we run in the Department, and so there's opportunities for you to connect with people who agree with, but also people who may differ from you, and that's part of the learning process. I have a few more slides and then I'll open it up for questions if that sounds good to everyone.

One of the other things I wanted to be sure that we did mention is the opportunity to study abroad. Mary Washington partners with a number of schools and has some programs of it all of its own, where you can have the opportunity to study internationally and this is something that I cannot emphasize. How great it can be for the students who are interested in that. I as an undergraduate myself, I spent a semester in Mexico studying Spanish. It wasn't a political science semester abroad in this case, but it was a program that really allowed me to understand another culture and.

Experience a different place. Very, very hands-on, and those are programs that we offer around the world you can study in France or in Spain. You can study in Taiwan. You can go pretty much most any place that you want to connect with. We can find an opportunity for you to connect, either with America Washington Program or a program that we're familiar with that some other organization. Some other institution is running and we try to set this up so that it doesn't have a big impact on.

The ability to graduate I had one of my advise ease every major has a faculty advisor. One of my advisee spent last spring in Australia and so she was able to take all kinds of courses in Australian politics. Now we generally don't teach a course in Australian politics or in the politics of New Zealand either. And So what we were able to do is just simply count. Those cries towards the degree. So we had that worked out ahead of time in this student she was able to.

Take the classes and have a great experience and still stay on track with her degree.

In terms of we have one of our star alums is somebody who was recently named as ambassador to candle issues of combat of trafficking in persons at Mary Washington. We've had ambassadors serve in Honduras and Salvador and a number of other places, former alums that have moved up relatively high level positions in the State Department in that career. And then, of course we also have opportunities that are working out.

Or the students who are more interested in Virginia politics. We've talked a lot about we talk a lot about Virginia politics in a lot of my courses. 'cause I do a course on elections. And as you know, as a soon to be your current Virginia voter, we have elections all the time in Virginia, and so one of one of our students who graduated last year, Stacy served as a governor's fellow, so she worked in the governor's office last year and is now involved in the Fredericksburg Area Metropolitan.

Planning organization so she's helping figure out how to deal with infrastructure development in this area, and this is an issue of great concern to her. She was up from Stafford County nearby and Fredericks in the Fredericksburg area. Very committed to making the region work in a better place. An within a net within a year of her graduation, she's worked for the governor and is found yourself a professional job doing what she is. Not only trained but committed to doing. We also have course had other students who've done scholarship programs.

Surely another student who graduated a few years ago. In this case she had a Fulbright Scholarship. She worked as a born scholar and also an is now working as a China and Taiwan analyst, and so there are all these opportunities that come your way because of what we can offer here at Mary Washington. The whole series of careers I don't need to put them out on the table but the but from the point of view of Law School. But we have a lot of students who go to.

To law school in particular, a lot of our students choose to go to U VA. William and Mary. George Washington University, American University of some of the schools in the area. We also have a number of students serving in the peace core. We actually are one of the top 10 schools for our size. Studying in the peace core, our alums. I've gone there and then gone on to careers. An NGO, NGO work. We also have a number of people who have gone into.

A variety of jobs in Washington for causes that they care about. One of my former students is spent several years with Autism Speaks in part because of a family member with autism, and so it was a cause that she was really committed to. Other people have gone to teach in public schools. Still others have worked for government agencies with areas of focus that particularly interest them.

And so we also of course had a lot of students who have gone on to political work working on political campaigns. And there's so many offices and so many candidates who are always running for office in Virginia, that if you can't find an internship in the in the political campaign, if that's what you want to do, you haven't tried very hard. We also, of course, have as I mentioned before, loyal alums who do a very good job of connecting students. Current students with opportunities at their aware of.

Now we have a web page where you can learn more about about the opportunities in the Department, but I think that with this I will open it up for questions and as I believe you've all been instructed, you simply can type in your message along the lines of where I said if everybody is ready, I'll get started in 20 seconds or so. So in the time that we have left, by all means offer up some questions to me in this message system.

I'll also offer up a couple of answers to some questions I got ahead of time. One of the questions was about law school, and So what you see in terms of how to structure your training for law school? This was the question. Now we have a lot of a lot of law school students major in political science along the way, and it matters less exactly what you take for courses in terms of Law School, what it matters much more in terms of your preparation is the doing well in your classes. I think that.

One of the things that you notice is that it is increasingly challenging to get into law school, and so you want to be sure that you've worked hard and that you have excelled and our students tend to do very well with the.

The course is an other preparation for for law school and then the opportunities.

Will come their way. The reality though is that is not that you have to have a formal specific course every semester that matches up what we do in our major is give you the opportunity to study a variety of things. We have required courses in American politics and other areas of international and comparative and political theory to give you a well rounded sense of a political science major because one of the things you may discover in college is what you think you're going to do before you start.

May not end up being what you end up doing that you've discovered something more interesting along the way. I'm actually an example of this. I started college thinking I was going to be an English major. I really liked literature. It was something that really interested Maine, but I had to take a political science course as a general education elective, an area of distribution in the social Sciences. I found it so much more interesting that I became a political science major. I didn't give up on English. I took a course in literature pretty much every semester when I was in undergrad. But as you can see right now.

My career has really very much focused on the political science side of my undergraduate training, so will open it up for any comments or questions and I look forward to hearing from you.

I'll ask are Lancer the questions as they come in?

I just received a question about minors and what makes sense from the from the issues of studying up miners, miners can work well with a political science major depending on what issues might be particularly interesting to you. We have in the national security arena we have a designated.

Specific national security studies minor.

Some people, if they're really interested in sort of visualizing politics if they're interested in data, they sometimes do like geography or GIS minor with political science. There are also issues with respect to with respect to other areas. We have a Middle Eastern Studies minor. We have their minors in many of the other departments. For people who are interested more in the public policy side of political science, you might take some economics courses. You have the opportunity to figure out and and try things out. One of the things that.

Uh, that it's important for you all to do for your first year wherever you go to college, whether it's Mary Washington or somewhere else, is to have a range of experiences in a variety of different majors. And so you get courses in different departments and see how things might come together. The issues that you have with respect to the political science major. Some of the students who work with me because I focus. As I mentioned on presidential communication, they take courses in communication.

And they might have a minor in communication or a double major with political science and communication. I also used to be a journalist before I became a professor, and so we have a special major in journalism at Mary Washington and so those students were really interested in the journalism side of political science. Many of them are minoring in journalism or taking courses in journalism. While they do their political science major. I mean, there really is a wide range of opportunities for things that you can do. Some people are interested in women and gender studies. Some people are interested in the Middle East, and so those range of minors are out there.

For the possibilities that you can imagine, I've also received another question, and by all means keep on keep the questions coming and a question about lawyer, uh, whether this is somebody wants to be a lawyer, and the question is should should they major in political science? I would strongly recommend it. I think that most of the people who end up in law school have political science backgrounds, and so there will be a question. I suspect in terms of your background. If you want to go to law school and you haven't been studying.

Political science because so much of what we do. Studying polisy, studying the law. Studying political theory so many of these aspects tie into a program. I tend to think you'll be much better prepared with the political science major when you're thinking about that. There's also opportunities for pre law courses in other departments and those kinds of opportunities are worth doing as well as a supplement. But. But ultimately, if this is something that you want to do, try a few things freshman year.

I'll get an advisor in.

On the campus who can meet with you individually and sort of work through exactly what makes sense for the kind of law that you want to practice? I had one of my students a few years ago who was very, very interested in environmental law, pollution and government protection for the environment, and so they took a lot of courses in Earth Sciences as a minor along the way, and so when they were a mechanism that was a mechanism for them to learn not only about the politics of law.

And how long might work, but also the substantive area that they really cared about. I have another student who is in a second year in law school now, who is really interested in business law. And so he did a minor in business along with his political science major to tailor his expertise in that area. And in both of those cases, I think the students were able to demonstrate to the law school admissions committees that they were serious and they were ready to do the kind of law that they wanted to do. And that's a mechanism that it is really useful.

In terms of, uh, another question that has come in the question of whether political science is a viable alternative for public administration, that's actually where most people in public administration start. You have the opportunity to do an undergraduate degree in political science and then you can get a job in government. An awful lot of our majors, in fact, are going into government agencies and working in the public administration area. I have.

You know a number of students who are legislative assistance to the state. Delegates in the state, senators and Richmond, former students who've done internships and then gone on to do those kinds of careers. I have another student who's working for the governor's governor's office right now, and so these are the kinds of public administration opportunities one of one of my former students. Actually, I've been teaching about 20 years now, so some of my students have very successful careers of their own. One of them is a member of the.

Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors and a lawyer in private practice. Another one of my former political science students. Another one of my advisee's is actually in the governor's Cabinet right now. He went to get a Masters in public administration at Virginia Tech after he completed his undergraduate degree here. So, so there's a great range of opportunities in the public administration area that can come from a political science degree. A lot of our students end up in that area. And then, of course, creates opportunities for us to offer current students in terms of.

Internships and other possibilities.

I've caught up with the questions now if there's still more we can, uh, can talk a little longer.

Oh you know I'm I'm thinking well I'm waiting for another question to come in I was on a we had a virtual faculty meeting today with the president of the University were right now like just about every other University in the country and certainly every other University in the Commonwealth engaged in online only education at the moment this is a once in 100 years crisis the Cove in 19 situation and so we're having to reorganize our courses in our plans and so the current plan.

For us at Mary Washington, in will move with other schools in Virginia I suspect is to create is to create the normal program that you would have the undergraduate experience. That is normally the case. We hope to resume normal operations over the summer so that we are good to go in the in the fall for the normal experience. I've also received a question about the Honors Program.

And there's our and the question is, are there separate political science courses within the honors program? And so one of the things that that I do want to talk to you about a moment, and this is a question is a good entry into. That is what's called the freshman seminar program. We have the opportunity for first year seminars for students coming in to have small classes to learn a little bit about how to get involved in the political, cultural campus experience of being an undergraduate here.

And those first year seminars F Sims there called give people a chance to do that. And if you are in the Honors Program, look for an honors FM. I'm actually teaching an honors FM in the fall, basically consuming news. A users guide is the title of the SM that I'm teaching and what we do in that course is talk about how to look at the news. Critically, I think that one of the key issues to think about in terms of news content is what we're actually receiving.

Is it complete? Is it fair? Is it honest? Is it informative? What are we getting? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the news that we have and so that class is set up as an honors class? M now that doesn't mean you have to be in the honors program to be in the FSM, but it is a class that is particularly tailored for honors students in that honors program. I would also recommend in terms of political science courses, that you would take our research methods class.

And that is a course that is specifically designated for honors there are also programs in other disciplines in other departments where there other honors courses that you might also find find useful so there's but it's not as if you're segregated or separated from all the other students in the major the classes that I teach the upper level classes that I teach might have 3 or 4 honor students out of the 17 in them at the upper level in that teach you.

Course in the presidency in the Mass Media. A course in elections, these courses might have some honor students in them and then there are the designated honors courses as well.

An and so one of the questions is about about internship credit. This is another one of the questions that just came in and let me explain to you how this works. We have the opportunity to offer up a course or two along your four years that are what we call experiential learning. These are internship opportunities that you might connect with a uh.

Opportunity to take a on off campus experience and get credit for it. For example, the student. I have a student this semester who.

Uh, it actually two of them who were doing internships on Capitol Hill, one working for Jamie Raskin, who's a congressman on the suburban Maryland inside of DC, and another one who's working for congressman Rob Wittman, who's a Virginia member of Congress. Weapons are Republican Raskins, a Democrat and the students and their own political interests matched up with those particular lawmakers. And So what happens is This Is This is something where, in both of these cases, these students are getting the equivalent of 3 credits, equivalent of a single course.

For this internship experience, they are taking the commuter train. As I mentioned, is the way to get to DC during the week in Fredericksburg. From Fredericks, Burg, and they stacked their classes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then they go to DC on Tuesday and Thursday, and those opportunities are out there. And that's something that we can work through. That's not something you can do is a first year student, so so it would have to be in terms of an internship for credit. It would have to start with after you after you have some credits.

And we want to make sure that you have adjusted well to college life and so their credit for internship comes a bit later in the program. But it's something that a lot of students particularly motivated students are doing because it's a chance to really learn something about a topic that really interests you. A chance to really get that kind of experience, and you can do so. Like I say, without really having any complication in terms of your own experience with respect to.

Conducting your regular coursework. So you take this one class. It's an internship you meet with your professor who's advising you every 2 three weeks. You have a chance to to have that work experience in whatever 'cause it is. Whatever issue it is, whatever candidate campaign, whatever agency might interest you. These opportunities are pretty wide ranging. You can look on our Department website and see that range of things that we've had students work on. I have had a student actually doing a legal internship last semester.

Hum.

Working with with Estates and Wills and trust because that's the kind of law that she wants to go into so that's the experience that she had so this is something that we encourage it's something in fact that we expect students will do one way or another. They can do they can do an internship for credit or they can do some other experience that gets them off the campus as part of their training and part of their preparation for the world because we think it's really important that the people.

Who are approaching graduation? Have had some work experience. They haven't just had the four classes. Five classes a semester for eight semesters. That's not fully preparing them for the work place, and so it's something that we take very seriously at Mary Washington and our location can create all kinds of opportunities for students who are connected. And once you get to camp as you can talk to professors who are interested in the areas that appeal to you and sort of figure out how to make that connection and make that those things work.

We do have time for a few more questions. If there are any others, who of you who are interested.

OK, well I think, uh, an unless I get another question here in a minute or two I think will, uh will say thank you very much. Uh, going once.

Going twice going twice.

OK, well thank you all very much for joining us today. Um, you can can connect with me. I'm easy enough to find on line my webpages stephenfarnsworth.net and from there you can email me a question if you have one that you didn't think to ask today but occurs to you to ask about tomorrow. Have a great time, stay safe, stay well and I hope I'll see you in Fredericks, Burg come August.

Thanks now.