The PAE Experience
by Lena Benson on February 25, 2010 in Culture
You can run. You can hide. But if you plan on graduating with a master’s degree in public policy from HKS, one thing is for sure: you must complete a Policy Analysis Exercise, or as we’ve all come to know and dread it, a PAE. Like Spring Exercise for first-year MPPs, the PAE is a rite of passage for second-year MPPs.
They come in all shapes but are essentially one size: 40 pages due on March 23rd. Beware when you ask an MPP2 “how’s your PAE going,” because at this point in the year, those three letters will inevitable stir up feelings of anxiety and contempt. If you ask that same individual about the experience in April, their response will assuredly be much different. A flush of pride and accomplishment sweeps over their face as they reply, for they, too, have joined the thousands before them on the other side of “The PAE Experience.”
The PAE is designed as a learning tool that enables students to combine knowledge acquired in their core courses and put them to use in a more realistic setting. The school takes great pains to prepare students for the process of completing a PAE, as well as supports and provides resources through Laura Homokay’s office in OCA and the Policy Area of Concentration Seminars that take place virtually every Thursday.
So how does one go about doing a PAE? First you need to find an outside client to work with and a policy idea or topic to focus on. Some students, like Lauren Siciliano (MPP2), were able to capitalize on connections made during their summer internship. Last summer, Lauren worked with the Agency Services division of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Operations and found not only a project topic but also a client. She is now in the final stages of completing a PAE on maximizing the benefits of reflective rooftops in New York City.
Other students look to the HKS PAE Database for inspiration. Here potential clients post information indicating their interest in working with students on specific projects. Kai Carter (MPP2) found her client, UNICEF, through the PAE database and is writing her PAE on identifying national entry points to roll out school-based climate change initiatives in the Philippines.
Another important initial decision is whether to work with a partner or to forge the journey alone. Kai chose to work with Rachel Tulchin (MPP2), while Lauren opted to work on her own.
Throughout the PAE process, students encounter challenges to completing their project. Some of these challenges are foreseeable; others are completely unexpected. Clients disappear, projects evolve outside of an advisor’s area of expertise, and travel funding becomes difficult to secure. MPP2s Ben Supple and Matt Homer were able to turn past experiences working with the Olympics into a PAE with the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro, evaluating options for U.S. diplomacy connected to the 2016 Olympics. Matt and Ben even received Brazilian media attention while working with officials from the Brazilian Olympic Committee. However, they encountered problems obtaining funding for international travel between HKS and their client. Another issue is data availability: Lauren advises current MPP1s to consider the availability of data sources early on in the project proposal.
After completing a PAE, many students ask themselves, “How do I turn this experience into a job opportunity?” Some students are successful in securing employment with former PAE clients. Sam Sanders, former KSSG Activities Chair and 2009 MPP graduate was able to turn his PAE with National Public Radio into a full time job and is currently working with the organization in Washington, DC. This is not always the case, though. It is important to take this question into account prior to even beginning your PAE, since much of one’s spring semester is spent completing the project while peers at other Harvard graduate schools focus their non-coursework time exclusively on a job hunt.
Still, completing the PAE gives HKS students a particular skill that others graduating in May are often deprived of: the ability to critically look at a project or policy and bridge the gap between academically-focused theory and real-world results that will be effective, efficient, and relevant outside of our Cambridge “bubble.”
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