PUBPOL 5060

Experiential Learning in Policy Making in Washington, DC

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2026-2027 Catalog.

The core course at Cornell in Washington is an experiential learning class that focuses on engaging with the professional experience of being in DC. Its primary purposes are to give students to build their understanding of their internship work by analyzing and reflecting on that work, understanding the context and structures of the policy and political world with which they are engaging, and learning and practicing the professional forms of writing that that world uses. This process occurs through readings, written assignments, guest speakers, and signature events. (MPA-DATSCI, MPA-ECONPL, MPA-ENPO, MPA-INTPMN, MPA-PUBNON, MPA-SCITEC, MPA-SOCPOL, MPA-TPA)

Enrollment Information Enrollment limited to: graduate and professional students.

Exploratory Studies (CU-CEL)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2026SP, 2025SP, 2024FA, 2024SP

Learning Outcomes

• Students will have employed experiential learning techniques through readings, class sessions, reflective journals, guest speakers, and other activities to examine the professional norms and codes of working in the policy world.
• Students will have identified the day-to-day processes of the American policy and political community in DC, its aims and goals, and how it works at the ground level.
• Students will have composed a series of policy memos and done an oral presentation in order to be able to construct a policy analysis and recommendation.
• Graduate students will have assessed the state of knowledge in their particular policy area.

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