Last fall, the UW–Madison Institute for Research on Poverty hired several undergraduate students for internships that allow them to build policy research and communications knowledge, skills, and experience, as well as to build a professional network and explore related careers. Ten students were selected to complete the internship, including La Follette School certificate in public policy students Reina Wu, Rishika Gaddamanagu, Caelan Lee, and Aidan Congleton. Interns help with a variety of projects related to poverty alleviation and economic mobility research including conducting scans of state programs, cleaning data, providing administrative support, and other research assistance.
IRP is a nonpartisan research institution on campus that studies the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality to inform programs and policies. The new internship was spearheaded by La Follette School Professor Sarah Halpern-Meekin, who serves as IRP director. “We gain from the students’ skills and insights, and we hope they learn more about the many kinds of work that happen around IRP and have the opportunity to deploy some of the hard skills and substantive knowledge they have gained from their public and health policy coursework,” says Halpern-Meekin.
Certificate in public policy student Reina Wu, who is double majoring in personal finance and economics, supports IRP’s study of the Child Care Counts Stabilization program in an internship that will continue through the spring semester. Her primary responsibilities include conducting literature reviews to provide context for the research and analyzing qualitative data. She codes responses from program participants, where she identifies themes, patterns, and insights to better understand how child care stabilization funding has impacted providers and families. Wu is working with IRP’s associate director for programs and management Hilary Shager (MPA ’05) and research specialist Liesl Hostetter on this project. Shager is a long-time friend of the La Follette School: after receiving her MPA in 2005, she went on to complete a PhD in public policy with a minor in education sciences, and from 2014 to 2018, she served as the associate director of the school.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of this internship was contributing to a project that directly addressed an issue I cared deeply about: the well-being of children in my community,” said Wu. “Stable, quality child care is such an important foundation for families, and knowing that my work sheds light on ways to support this system has been incredibly fulfilling.” Through her work coding and analyzing qualitative data, Wu says she is also learning how to be precise and thoughtful in her communications, especially when working with complex datasets. “It was amazing to see how clear communication turned data into actionable insights that influenced policy decisions.”
Wu was drawn to the La Follette School’s public policy certificate because it allows her to connect her personal finance and economics majors with a broader policy framework. “I’ve always been passionate about understanding how systems shape individual and community well-being, and this certificate has helped me explore that intersection,” she says. “The program’s focus on evidence-based solutions and its emphasis on real-world application resonate with my goals to make a positive impact, whether through policy analysis or financial planning.”
During the fall semester, the La Follette students participating in the internship paired their work with PA 327 Administrative Internship, a class that helps students make the most of their internship experience by providing guidance and the chance to reflect on their experiences. The class is taught by La Follette’s director of experiential learning, Mary Michaud, who has used her more than two decades of experience in program management, program evaluation, and leadership in health administration and public health to inform the design of innovative curricula that bridges theory and practice.