Managing intensive student consulting capstone projects: The Maxwell school experience

Abstract

How do professional programs in public affairs try to bridge the worlds of classroom and practice?1 A common approach is to employ experiential learning through a clinical component in the curriculum, frequently a "capstone" experience (Roberts and Pavlak, 2002). Capstone design integrates knowledge and skills learned throughout the public affairs curriculum in a single analytic project or exercise. Capstones should also ease the transition from student to professional by exposing students to the realities of working in a policy research or organizational setting. Some capstones use project-based assignments that focus on current policy and management challenges faced by actual government or non-profit agencies; other project-based assignments may take the form of consulting relationships with realworld clients.This journal has published three recent articles about group-based experiential learning that are relevant to the topic of project-based capstones. Flynn, Sandfort, and Selden (2001) discuss the utility of incorporating modest-sized student consulting projects into a three-dimensional model for an introductory graduate-level course in public management. While this class is not a capstone, but a course students typically experience early in their program, group projects introduce the stu-

Training for the Industry: Examining the Use of Real-life Consultancy Projects in Development Studies Programmes

“…One could, of course, vary several of its aspects, from the form of the output to the modalities of assessing it, to the role of the coaches and the clients, or the project milestones. However, studies of consultancy or capstone projects in MPas or public policy programmes and publicly available information on programme websites suggest that they are carried out in broadly similar ways (allard and Straussman, 2003).…”

“…The literature has been almost unanimously supportive of the proposition that these objectives are indeed being achieved, finding that consultancy projects lead to ‘increased course satisfaction, policy analysis, general professional skills and dedication to community involvement’ (Ahmed, 2015; Allard and Straussman, 2003; Ardley and Taylor, 2010; Camill and Phillips, 2011; Flynn et al, 2001; McGaw and Weschler, 1999; Roberts and Pavlak, 2002; Sprague and Hu, 2015: 263; Whitaker and Berner, 2004).…”

How Valuable Are Capstone Projects for Community Organizations? Lessons from a Program Assessment

“…As noted, students at Binghamton University work closely with both faculty and practitioner committee members to design their capstone projects. Other programs structure their capstone courses differently, and some require faculty and capstone supervisors to agree on project scope and the content of the deliverables before student involvement (e.g., Allard & Straussman, 2003). This approach may help foster stronger relationships between faculty and capstone supervisors earlier in the capstone process and minimize the need for students to act as intermediaries between faculty and capstone supervisors.…”

“…have detailed different approaches to capstone courses and made recommendations for designing successful projects (Allard & Straussman, 2003;McGaw & Weschler, 1999). Others have examined the benefit to students of incorporating reflection into capstone courses (Bushouse & Morrison, 2001).…”

Student consultants' perceptions and valuations of research skills

“…Since at least the early 1970s, student consulting projects – their benefits and challenges, successes and failures – have been documented in the literature (Holler Phillips, 2010). Like other manifestations of experiential learning, student consulting projects have been frequently presented in the literature as a bridge between classroom activities and what are often termed real, real‐world, or real‐life situations, enabling students to apply their theoretical or classroom learning (Allard and Straussman, 2003; Brown, 1977; Burr and Solomon, 1977; Culver et al , 1998; de los Santos and Jensen, 1985; Elam and Spotts, 2004; Elmore, 2003; Gaidis and Andrews, 1990; Kierulff, 1974; Lamond, 1995; McCleary, 1984; Rainsford, 1992; Razzouk et al , 2003).…”