Mallory Smith, senior public policy major, presents research at the Urban Affairs Association conference in San Diego.

Undergraduate research in action

Student applies public policy coursework, research to community issues

TEXT SIZE

1:49 p.m., March 24, 2016--Standing at the podium at an international research conference, University of Delaware senior Mallory Smith couldn’t believe it for a moment. Ten months earlier, she was at the cusp of her last summer as an undergraduate, trying to decide what experience would help her land her first job. 

Fast forward through the school year, Smith said she knows she made the right decision: to find meaningful work that would use her skills taught in the classroom and tap into her passion for research.

People Stories

'Resilience Engineering'

The University of Delaware's Nii Attoh-Okine recently published a new book with Cambridge University Press, "Resilience Engineering: Models and Analysis."

Reviresco June run

UD ROTC cadets will run from New York City to Miami this month to raise awareness about veterans' affairs.

“I’m considering doctoral studies or international research fellowship opportunities after graduation, so I wanted a placement that would cultivate my research skills,” said Smith.

Delaware Model

Whether she was aware of it or not, Smith has been living out the Delaware Model — an approach to public administration education that integrates classroom instruction with applied research and scholarship on the compelling challenges faced by governments and communities.

Smith’s Delaware Model experience reached a high point on March 16 when she presented her co-authored research paper, “How is Your Region Creative? A Derived Typology to Inform Economic Development Strategies,” at the 46th annual Urban Affairs Association Conference in San Diego, California, an international gathering of over 900 urban researchers, planners, and policy analysts.

Smith, a student in the School of Public Policy and Administration’s accelerated 4+1 bachelor of arts in public policy and master of public administration program, started research soon after beginning work with the Institute for Public Administration (IPA) as an Undergraduate Public Policy Fellow in May 2015.

Smith’s supervisor and conference paper co-author Troy Mix, a policy scientist with IPA, remembered their first steps as a research team.

“Mallory expressed a desire to learn and apply statistical research techniques to public policy problems,” Mix said. “Since her first day on the job, I worked with her to learn statistical software and apply these new skills on economic development projects for local and national organizations.”

Arts and the economy

The research she presented began with an invitation from George Watson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, to Mix — who brought in Smith — to scope a research agenda with the Delaware Arts Alliance (DAA) to understand how the arts impact the Delaware economy.

Guillermina Gonzalez, the DAA’s executive director, lamented the “lack of data on the economic development role of the arts in Delaware.” 

She added, “The research Troy and Mallory have started will play a valuable role in beginning to fill this gap and helping to make the case for preserving a strong arts and culture scene in Delaware.”

Enter the classroom, where Smith and five other students have taken on the DAA as a client for their Contemporary Policy Issues course.

“One important component of this capstone course for public policy students is a team practicum project that promotes learning by doing through solving applied policy and management problems for a variety of real-world clients,” said course instructor Jonathan Justice, a professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration.

Smith and her colleagues will spend the remainder of the semester working on their final deliverable, a whitepaper recommending approaches to measure, track and communicate the impacts of the creative economy in Delaware. 

Reflecting on the value of this work, Watson, who currently serves on the board of the DAA, said, “I believe, and research shows, that problem-based learning approaches can help develop critical thinking and communication skills, so it is particularly gratifying to see the efforts of Mallory and her colleagues on a real-world problem result in both scholarship and tangible products for a community partner.”

Smith’s conference presentation brings this research one step closer to publication, with Mix and Smith working to prepare their article on the spatial distribution of creative economy characteristics for submission to a peer-reviewed journal.

As for how this experience has influenced her future plans, Smith concluded that “after being immersed in the process of conducting research, I have a much better appreciation for what life as a scholar is like.   Whatever career path I take, I have a lot more research tools at my disposal than I did 10 months ago — I’m ready to put them to work.”

News Media Contact

University of Delaware
Communications and Public Affairs
302-831-NEWS
publicaffairs@udel.edu

UDaily is produced by
Communications and Public Affairs

The Academy Building
105 East Main Street
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716 | USA
Phone: (302) 831-2792
email: publicaffairs@udel.edu
www.udel.edu/cpa