OCS Conference Funding Submission

Event Photo:

I stood near the conference welcome board.

The conference opening session. People attended both in-person and online.

One of the presentations in the "Causal Mechanisms in Policy Process Research" session.

Name: Shuangyu Chen

Degree Program: MPA IN PUBLIC & NONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & POLICY

Specialization: PNP-Financial Management and Public Finance

Conference Host Organization/Institution: University of Colorado Denver

Conference/Competition Name: Conference on Policy Process Research

Conference Term: January Conference Start Date: 2023-01-12 Conference End Date: 2023-01-14

What were your takeaways from this conference/case competition?
Attending the conference is a good way to learn the latest trends in academic research about policy design, policy process, and implementation. There were many sessions in the conference and they covered a wide range of policy areas including education, finance, health, housing, etc. Another important component of attending the conference is networking. I got to know some professors and PhD students who have similar passions and research interests, and learned from them through listening their presentations and having conversations.

How will your participation in this conference/case competition support your professional development?
I'm currently applying for a PhD in Public Policy/Public Administration, and in this academic career I intend to pursue, attending conferences and meeting with professors/ PhD students in the filed I am passion about is important. Knowing what research other people are doing can give me some ideas of what research I am going to do, and I learned a lot from listening presentations in various policy fields. Meanwhile, through networking opportunities, I got to know some people in my filed that I will possibly work with in the future.

What are some next steps or action items this conference/case competition inspired?
This is my first academic conference experience and I realized I still have a knowledge gap to understand some policy topics and research methodologies. To better understand the research, I will need to read more academic papers in the related fields. Also, I got to know how scholars presenting their papers and answering questions in a conference, and in the future if I have chances to present, I will know how to do that.

What are some tips or best practices that you would like to share with other Wagner students who attend a conference/case competition?
The first tip is choosing the session you want to attend carefully. The conference includes many sessions and there are usually over five sessions happening at the same time. You may interested in more than one session, and I recommend searching the presenter's name and knowing what are their specialized areas before deciding which session to attend.
The second tip is attending the dinner reception if the conference has such a component. It is a great opportunity to network with professors and students from many universities, and you can find people who have the similar research interests as yours.

Wagner Areas of Impact: Education, Finance, Government, Health, Housing, Inequality, Race, and Poverty, Nonprofits