Political Science

Transcript 0:00 (gentle bright music)
0:07 - My scholarly area of focus is on political participation.
0:11 I grew up in a family that was politically active,
0:15 and so it was at an early age that I saw
0:17 that regular citizens could have an impact.
0:19 So my scholarship stems from that belief
0:23 that citizens can really make a difference in the world.
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0:29 My favorite course that I teach
0:31 is my Voting Rights and Election Law class.
0:33 Students learn about elections
0:35 and voting in the United States.
0:36 The other thing about that class
0:38 that is really cool is the students get
0:40 to be poll workers on Election Day.
0:42 My students fan out
0:43 to all of the polling locations across the city of Boston.
0:46 The poll workers at those locations all tell me
0:49 how much they love the Suffolk students.
0:52 It's a class where students can be creative,
0:54 they can learn a lot,
0:55 and we have a great community.
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0:59 We have a lot of classes
1:02 that have some kind of experiential learning component.
1:05 The Suffolk University Research Center
1:08 teaches a spring class that is on polling.
1:11 The students get to run their own poll.
1:13 They are the people who are making phone calls
1:16 to find out what public opinion about a particular topic is.
1:19 Another example, we have a UN seminar.
1:22 They actually get to go to the United Nations
1:25 and meet with ambassadors,
1:27 and get a real taste of who the people who work there are
1:31 and what they think about and do.
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1:36 Students can go to their internship,
1:38 and then five minutes later, be in a classroom.
1:40 So whether you wanna work for an organization
1:43 that is advocating on behalf of the environment,
1:45 safe streets, or on behalf of different kinds of rights,
1:50 all of those organizations are here.
1:52 We have students working at the consulates,
1:54 in law firms, in the various agencies in government.
1:57 We're just so lucky to have the kind of connections
2:00 to all of these people and ideas that we have right here.
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2:07 One of the things
2:08 that really does make us unique here at Suffolk
2:10 is that we train students in how to run for office,
2:14 how to manage campaigns.
2:15 What we hope to do here is provide them with the confidence
2:19 that they can do it,
2:21 the skills and the knowledge that they need to go do it.
2:24 We don't need to have our entire life straightened out
2:27 before we decide to run for office.
2:29 We can get to the job
2:31 and make a huge difference in the process.
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2:37 The faculty at Suffolk University
2:39 is an extraordinary group of people.
2:42 They are deeply committed to students,
2:45 and they're deeply committed to this institution,
2:48 and the kinds of transformative experiences
2:52 students have all the time
2:54 is directly a result of the kinds of deep engagement
2:59 and dedication to students that our faculty have.
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