Place: BYU-Hawaii GCB 188

Place: 55220 Kulanui street Laie, Hawaii 96762

Time: 3:40 p.m.

Date: Friday, January 27

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The event will take place in room 303 of the J. Reuben Clark Law School.  There is no need to RSVP. If you have any additional questions please contact the Utah Chapter at utah@byupas.org.

Prior to her work with MCC, Sarah worked as U.S. Senator Bob Bennett’s Deputy Press Secretary in Washington, D.C.  While working on Capitol Hill, Sarah was a Board Member and the Director for Development for the Senate Press Secretaries Association.  Before working on Capitol Hill, Sarah worked for Yehu Microfinance in Mombasa, Kenya.

In 2006, Sarah graduated with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Communications from Brigham Young University, where she also served as student body vice president, Student Alumni Association vice president, and a research assistant for the Utah Colleges Exit Poll.

Sarah has served as the Communications Vice President for the BYUPAS Washington, D.C. and New York City chapters.

To view Sarah’s LinkedIn profile, click here.

To email Sarah, click here.

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In this tough economy, I get the sense that a lot of people are looking at graduate school as a way to get education that can make them more employable down the road and also help them to wait out the economic conditions until there is a better job market. There are dangers in this kind of thinking. Principally, graduate school is very expensive, and the job market is impossible to predict. It may be better to be looking for a job with just a bachelor’s degree and no debt than a graduate degree and a heavy debt load. That said, graduate school may be the best choice for some people. My advice to people considering graduate school is to think very carefully about what they want their career to look like. Do they want to practice law, medicine or dentistry? Do they want to become a professor in an academic discipline? If so, graduate school is the only way to get there. Before they spend six figures on an education, they should be sure that it will take them where they want to be. For me, I made the decision that I wanted to practice law. I came to feel passionately about that career choice and law school, while expensive, was the only route to take me there. The bottom line is this: go to graduate school if you envision your dream career as one that requires a graduate degree. If you are unsure about what you want to do or whether graduate school will help you to get there, I would advise against it.

Jason M. Howell
Brigham Young University, 2009 BA
William & Mary School of Law, 2012 JD Candidate

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I graduated BYU with a BA in English and went off to teach elementary school while I debated either going to law school or getting a masters degree.  I always had a goal of being in public service, so going to graduate school was a means to fulfill that goal.  Although I was accepted to law school, I pursued a masters degree in public policy at Pepperdine University, instead.  I incurred a significant debt (compared to what I owed at BYU), but I felt like the program gave me the tools, the mentors and a network to help me achieve my goals of working in the rough and tumble of policy and politics.  The graduate program also forced me to get outside the classroom and complete a couple of internships of my choosing with a major think tank and the Israeli Consulate.  In those settings, I learned how public policy was really made.  I also connected with several of the best and brightest minds in California–people with whom I still connect today.  The graduate program supplemented the first principles I learned at BYU helping me to be a better informed and more active citizen. Graduate school also launched me into a prestigious fellowship which accelerated my learning process and guided me into a incredible job as a policy consultant for the California State Senate, where I work now.  I am a proponent of graduate school if an individual has a goal, a plan and a way to pay for the experience.  Graduate school should not be the “next step” but should should be a honing process for one’s education and skills in a particular field of endeavor.  If one can find their avocation without graduate school, then I believe that it is an unnecessary path to take.

Lance Christensen
Brigham Young University, 2001 BA
Pepperdine University, 2004 International Relations Master of Public Policy

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An advantage of graduate school, in my personal experience, has been its ability to strengthen my analytical skills. It has changed the way I view problems and approach solutions. It has built up my confidence and required me to learn to think and speak on my feet, often in front of antagonistic audiences.

Emily McClintock Ekins
Brigham Young University, 2006 BA
University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Political Science PhD Candidate

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Graduate school provides critical training for anyone interested in applied politics. It isn’t about what you learn in the classroom or even in studying countless books and articles for class.  The value of graduate school is in learning how to think analytically. In my graduate school experience I learned how to approach a policy or political problem, learned what tools and resources are available for addressing that problem, and learned to critically analyze the intended and unintended consequences of a proposed solution. I use thinking and analytically skills honed in graduate school in my work every day. It has paid dividends as I have been recognized more than once, both in formal and informal performance reviews, for my ability to critically approach and solve problems. Employers want someone who can think. Employers also want a “team player.” The most important skills I learned in graduate school were people skills, learning to listen to, engage, and work with people whose political ideas and philosophies were very different from mine.Once working in applied politics it is easy to become insulated, surrounded by people and in organizations that think like we do. Graduate school provides an a control experiment environment to test your principles and ideas and your ability to explain them. Graduate school, for me, was about the relationships that I developed by debating and working with fellow students coming from all walks of life and all as equally committed as I am to using the political process and public service to build a better world.

Scott Rasmussen
Brigham Young University – Idaho, 2001 AA
University of Utah, 2006 BA
University of Michigan, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, 2009 Master of Public Policy

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I am a strong advocate of the unique opportunities afforded individuals through the pursuit of a graduate degree.  I attended the University of California, San Diego’s Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (yes, a mouthful) between 2003 and 2005, obtaining a Master of Pacific International Affairs degree, which is basically an international MBA.  When considering my own intellectual growth and development, the greatly-broadened horizons, the many wonderful friendships I made, the opportunity to live in La Jolla, California, and particularly the doors my graduate degree opened for me, grad school was both the best investment and the best two years of my life.  And I never would have guessed school could be so much fun!  Moreover, the MPIA’s breadth has enabled me to secure, steady, well-compensated USG employment in fields as diverse as acquisition management, U.S. foreign policy, and federal law enforcement and intelligence.  Lastly, and probably most importantly, one cannot access OPM’s Presidential Management Fellowship program without having an advanced degree.  Bottom line, a graduate degree will put one at least equal footing with, if not providing a leg up, on the competition.

Jeff Burnett
Utah Valley State College, 1999 AA
University of Utah, 2001 BA
University of California, San Diego, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, 2005 Master of Pacific International Affairs

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Graduate school can be a great investment for some people, and for others everything from a huge needless debt burden to a human tragedy. I tried to attend graduate school immediately following graduation from BYU but failed, in part because BYU could not conceive of anyone going anywhere other than law or business school. I could not be happier with the outcome. The experience I gained has made my research much more focused, my job prospects brighter, and my experience better. Everyone should work for a few years before returning to grad school. When they do, they should choose the programs wisely. PhD’s are not status symbols or rank, but are only for those who wish to teach or do research, and take at least five years for any reputable program and can easily turn into a miserable waste of time if you are not careful. If you want a career in government bureaucracy, go to the cheapest program that you can find, because an MA is an MA to the government. Otherwise, go to the best school you can, because the connections and training really do matter. Never lose sight of the fact that school is a means to a job, not an end itself. Only go to school because that specific degree qualifies you for a job. Never go to graduate school to hide from the job market, ‘find yourself’, or broaden your options. Grad school is costly both in time and money, there are cheaper ways to do all of those things, especially if your goal is politics. You will only find yourself poorer than when you started, and very rarely any better off.

David Benson
Brigham Young University, 2000 BA
University of Chicago, Committee on International Relations, 2009 Master of International Relations
University of Chicago, 2013 Political Science PhD Candidate

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Feel free to join this discussion in our LinkedIn group or on Facebook.

If you are an advocate of graduate school, why?  How do you believe it furthered your career, or in what ways do you expect it to?  What advice do you wish you would have received before starting grad school?

If you are against graduate school, why?  What advice would you give to our members interested in getting into applied politics?

Regardless of your advice, if you started or completed an academic or professional degree somewhere, be sure to mention the school and program so that our members can also learn more about them, since each one is slightly different.

May 17, 2011: Meridian Magazine - BYU Students Mentored for Washington DC Jobs

May 17, 2011: BYU Daily Universe – Beyond BYU offers networking opportunities