Practical Experience

Hands-on experience is a critical element of training at the Harris School. Internships, practica, and mentor program provide multiple opportunities to practice policy principles in the real world.

Internships enable students to put analytical tools to work during the summer in a variety of organizational settings, both domestic and international. Created by the Harris School in affiliation with sponsoring organizations, group internships offer the opportunity to tackle a specific project and have addressed a wide range of policy issues, including affordable housing, community development, the environment, information technology, poverty alleviation, and social policy. Individual internships are also available and provide the flexibility to pursue a particular agency or setting of interest.

Recent internship organizations include the Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Rehab Network, City of Chicago, Field Museum, Illinois Department of Public Aid, Jordan Investment Board (Amman, Jordan), Ministry of Social Development of the Government of Mexico (SEDESOL), ShoreBank Corporation, Standard & Poor's, and United Nations Development Programme.

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Practica are faculty-supervised, course-credit team projects completed for a client organization during the school year that give students a firsthand opportunity to apply their policy skills to help address complex problems. Through these well-defined projects, students are able to analyze and evaluate programs, develop and administer surveys, conduct needs assessments, and engage in other policy-relevant research. Clients are able to use practica to enhance their own organizations' work, often to accomplish projects that they do not have the resources to address.

Recent practica clients/partners include the Illinois Department of Revenue, Action for Children, Cook County Assessors Office, and Ceasefire Illinois. Click here for summaries of past projects.

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The mentor program, the only one of its kind at a major public policy school, matches eligible Harris School students one-on-one with top policy practitioners from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. From CEOs to foundation directors to top government officials, more than 100 practicing policy professionals are affiliated with the Harris School as mentors, sharing with students their time and their experience. Many of these mentoring matches evolve into lasting professional relationships.

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