Guest Blogger: Geoff Pallay

I met Geoff in my first graduate school class, which coincidentally was his last.  He graduated in May with his Master’s in Public Administration and has been pretty busy ever since.  I’ve invited him to be a guest blogger for the Fall semester.  Below is his first entry.  Hope you enjoy getting to know him and learning how his degree is shaping his career.

Wow, so what can I say. It’s been a whirlwind few months since graduating from the MPA program in May.

I had spent the last two years working as a graduate assistant on campus while obtaining the Masters in Public Administration.

The final week of school I was informed that I had been selected for the Charles Koch Associate Program, which is a one-year program that trains futures leaders of nonprofits interested in liberty. I am spending the year working for the South Carolina Policy Council as a Policy Analyst, while also learning Market-Based-Management — a management philosophy created by Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Industries. The program lasts until May 27, 2010.

My first week was spent in Washington DC, where the program is based out of, for a crash course in the program. There are 81 other associates in the program scattered throughout the country — 60 based in DC, 21 in other cities.

The mission of the South Carolina Policy Council is “to promote limited government, free enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility.” It has been a great experience working in a nonprofit organization, after spending two years learning about the nonprofit world in the classroom. Working as a policy analyst, it has extremely rewarding to be a part of important state and national issues that are shaping our world.

Being able to apply the academic principles I learned at the College to read world problems is another great reminder of why the MPA degree is so helpful!