PPPM 2010 Annual Awards Event

Korrin B.

June 9, 2010 - 7:07 PM

I know that everyone is expecting this post to be about how I made it to Atlanta, moved into my room in this beautiful, enormous, 100-year-old southern home, and spent my first day walking around my neighborhood and the grounds of The Carter Center. I assure you that all of that will come very soon. However, I have to make this post on something else. After this, my blog will consist of a summer of Atlantan adventure. For the record though, I made it safely to Atlanta and just got back inside to write this after lounging about all evening on the porch swing.

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend one of the biggest events put on by my department, Planning, Public Policy and Management, each year. It was the 2010 Annual Awards Event. This event is held in the rather regal Gerlinger Alumni Lounge and honors distinguished alumni of the PPPM department, outstanding PPPM faculty members, and people doing amazing service in the Oregon community.

I attended the event with a friend of mine who is a business major. I think it was a really great experience for him, as he was able to see exactly what it was that I saw when I decided that PPPM was the major for me. He mentioned to me how inspiring it was to hear about the work done in our department and to experience the caring environment that the PPPM department creates.

Although the overall event was enjoyable, what I liked most was hearing from the recipients of the Distinguished Alumna and Distinguished Recent Alumnus awards. The Distinguished Alumna was given to Mariza A. Rogers. Mariza graduated from the Department in 1993 with a master's in public affairs, as well as one in international studies. Mariza interned for the U.S. Department of State following her graduation and then went on to work for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). I was inspired to hear about her humanitarian work throughout the world. She was unable to attend the event because she is currently in Haiti as part of USAID's Disaster Assistance Response Team. However, a dear friend of her's, who is also currently the PPPM Internship Director, read her statement to the audience as photos of her inspiring work appeared on the screen behind. Mariza is one example of the amazing people who come out of my department.

The recipient of the Distinguished Recent Alumnus was Wylie Chen and he was able to make the event. I even got to talk with him afterwards a little bit, which was a great experience. Wylie is currently in Washington, D.C. and I learned from our conversation that he knows many people there who are related to my field of interest, homelessness policy. Wylie got his B.S. in PPPM in 2000 and has been working at the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) since 2002. The work he has done to increase literacy rates among low-income children and to act as an advocate for addressing child poverty is inspiring. Wylie also went on to earn a M.Ed. in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Overall, the event was a wonderful way to recognize some of the fabulous accomplishments of this very unique department on campus. I encourage everyone to get to know PPPM. Many people remark that they have never heard of our department before, but I'm sure they've heard of our work!