Alumni and Friends: La Follette Notes Fall 2004

Professional development for first-year La Follette School students has been enhanced and formalized with the introduction of a required one-credit course.

First offered in fall 2004, the course gives students opportunities to improve their skills in writing, public speaking, interviewing, and using Excel and PowerPoint. The course brings policy practitioners to class to talk with students about their jobs, and how students should prepare for careers in the public, non-profit and private sectors.

“The professional development series formalizes many of the services our students already were taking advantage of,” says La Follette School Associate Director Melanie Manion.

Faculty and staff work with students to improve their résumés, job-application cover letters and professional writing skills. Individual interviews let Manion and career development coordinators Mary Woodward and Mara Warner learn about each student.

The fall practitioner series includes:

• Jeffrey Schneider, a senior economist for South Asia at the Office of Near Eastern and South Asian Analysis in the Directorate of Intelligence;
• Deedra Atkinson, senior vice president of community impact for United Way;
• Kirstin Nelson, a 2003 La Follette School alum, former analyst at the Government Accountability Office, now with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue;
• Michael Ley, a partner at Virchow Krause’s public sector management consulting services; and
• James Pingel, a 1993 La Follette School alum who is a deputy director with the Wisconsin Sentencing Commission.