Students Pass Fall Oral Comprehensive Exams
First row (L-R): Dr. Alicia Schatteman, Dr. Julie Langer, Denise Burchard, Karinne Bredberg, Elizabeth Wright, Anthony Vasquez.
Second Row (L-R): Nicolas Hammonds, Michael Holland, Jason Blumenthal, Dr. Mike Peddle, Dr. Kurt Thurmaier, Patrick Lang, Dr. Jaehee Jong, Jessica Sandlund, Angela Zubko.
Third row (L-R): Scott Koeppel, Matt Hedges, Jeremie Lukowicz, William Gabrenya, Dr. Al Hyde, Michael Barr, Joshua Wallace, Michael Griesbaum, Dr. Aaron Deslatte and Dr. Eunju Rho.
Many of us remember the last semester of our MPA program. The relief of finishing the capstone (or star) paper and the two-day writing event known as the comprehensive exam.
The comprehensive exam required us to recall and rewrite essays reflecting all of the important knowledge we gained from our time in MPA courses. We crammed all the theories from the great public administration scholars and furiously wrote answers to pass this important final exam.
Four years ago the faculty considered a variety of options to update the capstone and comprehensive exam process to make it more applicable to future public administrators and to align it with the program’s 13 competencies and with other MPA programs.
The capstone paper is now a requirement of a one-semester course and the papers are based upon carefully chosen case studies. The faculty member teaching the capstone course provides several case studies for students to choose from to write their capstone paper. After the papers are written, students are paired with one or two others to present their case study analysis to a panel of faculty and practitioners. Students are graded on their paper by the faculty member and on their oral presentation by the panelists.
Thank you to the many alumni who have served as panelists for the past four years. Our next oral comprehensive exam will be held on Friday, April 19, 2019 at the NIU Hoffman Estates campus. If you are interested in serving on a panel, please contact Denise Burchard at dburchard@niu.edu.
