Stearns County Courts Internship

Project assistance with the Stearns County Adult Drug Court and Stearns County Family Dependency Treatment Court

Brigid Murphy '89 is the coordinator for both of these courts and would provide guidance and oversight to an intern. You may reach Brigid via e-mail at brigid.murphy@courts.state.mn.us or her direct office number is 320-656-6364.

Video: Eugene McCarthy memorial service

The Saint John's memorial Mass from January 23, 2006. Abbot John Klassen of Saint John's Abbey will be the celebrant. Eulogists include Walter Mondale, former U.S. vice president; Albert Eisele, a Saint John’s alumnus and a long-time Washington journalist whose book, "Almost to the Presidency," is a biographical review of Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey; Eugene McCarthy’s son, Michael; and the Rev. Hilary Thimmesh, OSB, president emeritus at Saint John’s.

CenterCast on iTunes

Sign up for CenterCast, the McCarthy Center podcast, for audio and video on iTunes and your iPod. By signing up, our lectures, events, meetings, and video will always be up-to-date on your computer.

To get iTunes, click here. For more ways to subscribe to the CenterCast feed, click here.

Public Innovators Undergraduate Internship

Root Cause is a nonprofit organization that accelerates enduring solutions to social and economic problems by supporting social innovators and educating social impact investors. We do this through business planning and implementation, leadership development, research, and the creation of professional and funding networks that unite the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Our key initiatives include consulting, social enterprises, knowledge sharing, research, and public policy.

Public Innovators, a nonpartisan Root Cause initiative, introduces government leaders at the city, state, and federal levels to social entrepreneurship and guides them in identifying and advancing transformative and sustainable solutions to today's toughest social problems. Public Innovators builds off our work with the Louisiana Lieutenant Governor’s Office, as well as two Root Cause reports: Social Entrepreneurship and Government: A New Breed of Entrepreneurs Developing Solutions to Social Problems, published by the U.S. Small Business Administration, and Advancing Social Entrepreneurship: Recommendations for Policy Makers and Government Agencies, a co-publication with The Aspen Institute. These publications and more information are available at www.publicinnovators.com.

About the Internship

The director of Public Innovators is Minnesota-based and seeks an unpaid intern for the summer, with the possibility that the position may be extended into and through the academic year. The intern may also apply for academic credit.

A new initiative, Public Innovators is experiencing rapid growth and is at the cutting edge of research and practice on social problem solving. This internship offers an excellent opportunity for students to gain significant knowledge of and experience in: the nonprofit sector and nonprofit management; public policy and government; and innovative approaches to social problem solving. The intern will be expected to commit to a set number of hours each week and must have access to a personal computer. If committing to full-time work during the summer, the individual may be eligible for a stipend. There is some flexibility in the particular projects the intern will work on, depending on skill set and interests.

Possibilities include:

• Brainstorm and research potential strategic partnerships
• Contribute to fundraising and development strategy
• Manage web outreach strategy, including Public Innovators’ own website, blog and wikis
• Research critical policy issues in specific states
• Conduct research and draft memos on policy issues and efforts, such as the creation of a social innovation fund and tax structure changes to enable new organizational forms
• Administrative assistance
  

Additional Qualifications

• Currently pursuing or recently completed an undergraduate degree
• Excellent writing, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, Internet, etc with access to own computer (laptop preferred)
• Interest and comfort in working in an entrepreneurial, start-up environment
• Ability to work independently and a desire to take on increased responsibility
• Strong project management skills and public policy exposure desired
  

To Apply

Send your resume to Colleen Ebinger at cebinger@rootcause.org with a cover letter describing your interest in the internship and your relevant skills/experience. Questions about the position are welcome.

Applications will be considered as they are received; priority consideration to early responses.

Mark Kennedy video available online

Eleven students participating as delegates in state party conventions

You don’t need to be a political science major to realize there are major differences between the Minnesota Republican and DFL political parties. But one thing is clear – students from the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, and Saint John’s University, Collegeville, will meet those differences head-on at each state convention.

Five students from SJU are delegates to the Republican state convention May 29-31, and six students from CSB and SJU are delegates to the DFL state convention June 6-8. Both conventions are in Rochester.

The Republican state delegates are SJU students Chase Kroll (sophomore, history major, Orono, Minn.), Colman Silbernagel (junior, political science and history, Perham, Minn.), Kurt Sorensen (senior, mathematics, Burnsville, Minn.), Heath Stoll (junior, accounting, Apple Valley, Minn.) and Chris Van Guilder (senior, political science, Delano, Minn.). SJU student Ryan Lais (sophomore, management, St. Paul) is an alternate delegate to the convention.

“CSB and SJU students add vibrancy to the Republican community with their youthful enthusiasm,” Sorensen said. “Even at the end of the day, we are standing up and speaking before the convention to talk about what we believe in. It’s encouraging to see so many students involved in the process – it shows that this generation cares about the direction of our country and who’s in charge.”

The DFL state delegates are CSB students Ashleigh Leitch (senior, political science/pre-law, Willmar, Minn.) and Robyn Meyer (senior, political science and Spanish, St. Cloud, Minn.), and SJU students Nick Hansen (sophomore, environmental studies, Wyoming, Minn.), Michael Johnson (sophomore, political science/pre-law, Eagan, Minn.), Joe Kane (senior, political science, Golden Valley, Minn.) and Matt Steinrueck (junior, environmental studies, Minneapolis). CSB student Sarah Gaida (senior, political science and peace studies, Rice, Minn.), and SJU students Eric Loehr (first-year, music, St. Cloud) and Zachary Shaheen (senior, biochemistry/pre-med, Elk River, Minn.) are alternate delegates to the convention.

Leitch has also been selected to be an alternate delegate to the Democratic National Convention Aug. 25-28 in Denver.

“The importance of civic engagement at CSB and SJU has sparked a new interest and dialogue on campus and this is the end result: People are getting excited about the change and impact they have in making a society that reflects the Benedictine values of the common good, service, stewardship, hospitality, justice and respect for all individuals,” Kane said.

McCarthy Center receives grant to support Washington D.C. studies

The McCarthy Center wishes to thank the Lawrence H. and Elizabeth S. Dunlap Foundation for their recent grant to support the Washington D.C. Summer Study Program.

Scholarship and Creativity Day

To all members of the CSB/SJU community: you are invited to attend student oral presentations today for the Public Policy Analysis and Recommendation project (Pols 114) in which students diagnose some policy problem and recommend a solution. The presentations will be in Simons G-40. The afternoon session goes from 1-4 PM, and the evening session from 7-9 PM. You do not need to stay for the entire session. These presentations are part of the Scholarship and Creativity Day activities. -James Read, Department of Political Science

Participating Students and Presentation Titles:

1:00-4:00 PM

• Anna Schumacher: Universal Pre-K Program
• Brian Strauss: Southwest Light Rail Transitway: The next step in MSP public transportation
• Ashleigh Leitch: Addressing Human Trafficking through Mandatory Reporting
• Sarah Gaida: Reintegration of Africa's Child Soldiers
• Dan Burgstaler: China's manipulation of currency.
• Casey Wojtalewicz: Feed-In Tariffs in Minnesota: Renewable Energy For and By All
• Jacob Lantry: "Refuse Derived Fuel: A Solution to the Dilemma at St. Paul's Rock-Tenn Recycling Plant."
• Jacob Law: Public Buildings and Environmental Regulation
• Michael Swanberg: Metropolitan Water District
• Kellianne Lauer: Pro Bono Legal Assistance for Undocumented Minors
  

7:00-9:00 PM

• Amy Hoeschen: Common Curriculum: waving an Environmental Flag High
• Tasha Truskolaski: Homeowner Protection Package
• Michael Cronan: The Reinforcement of the Fairness Doctrine
• Sarah Biro: Consistency in Nutritional Education in Public Schools
• Hannah Lammer: Reevaluating Efficiency and Health: Food Stamp Program Reform
• Joe Eiden: Judicial Bypass: Minnesota’s Flawed Option for Minors Seeking Abortion
• Rachel Kohout: Real Costs of War Profiteers: Inefficiency of Private Contracting
• Erik Anderson: Indoor Air Quality in Minnesota Public Schools
• Alan Albert: A New Reformed Health Care System in America
  

CSB/SJU Welcomes Julian Bond for the 2008 McCarthy Lecture

The Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement announces that Julian Bond, chairman of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), will deliver the secondannual Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture at 7 p.m. Wed., Oct. 29, in the Stephen B. Humphrey Theater on the Saint John's University campus.

Public Policy Forum Debate

On March 11th at 7pm in the Pellegrene Auditorium, The Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy & Civic Engagement is sponsoring a public debate on environmental policy. The central debate resolution is “Be it resolved that the free-market is best suited to protect the environment.”

This debate will be well balanced, with highly qualified people on both sides of the event.

Christopher Horner, a best-selling author and a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, will be making an encore appearance and speaking on the affirmative side of the resolution.

Denis McDonough, a ’92 SJU alum, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and advisor to Presidential candidate Barack Obama, will argue against the resolution.

The McCarthy Center will also prepare four students to participate alongside the experts, with two students on each side. A larger group of students will serve as a debate prep team.

With growing scientific knowledge of the multitude of environmental issues, many folks are increasingly interested in the debate over the role of government and private sector in response to these issues. Topics like cap and trade systems, carbon taxes, Kyoto Treaty, and other public policy issues are likely to be addressed, along with capitalism’s profit incentive and how environmental integrity plays in to that.

We hope this debate will interest faculty, staff, and students from many disciplines and political ideas. However, we also hope this will be an informative, lively, and civil debate for those who just want to learn more about the issues and trade offs associated with environmental policy.