Competition Details
Questions? Email thechallenge@sas.upenn.edu
Schedule
The Public Policy Challenge starts in the fall with the application process and participant selection. The Challenge kicks off at the beginning of the spring semester with a team-building event. Workshops take place during February and March, with different plan components due every 2 weeks. Finals take place shortly after spring break. Check the calendar for specific info about Deadlines & Events.
Application and Team Formation
One of the goals of the Challenge is to bring together students from different disciplines who have common policy interests – team dynamics and networking with new colleagues are part of the overall Challenge experience. To that end, participants apply individually, rather than as predetermined teams. (Follow this link to Get Involved and complete the simple application.) Using information from applications, an advisory panel of faculty and students select a limited number of participants and assign them to teams of 5. Each team is made up of students from a variety of disciplines with common policy interests. All teams take part in a team-building seminar at the start of the spring semester, facilitated by representatives from Penn Organizational Dynamics. This seminar helps each team establish an efficient working relationship while building consensus around a particular policy area of focus.
Events
Check the calendar for the latest info on event dates, times, and locations.
Kick-off / Team Building
An official kick-off event takes place at the beginning of the spring semester. This event functions primarily as a team-building opportunity and is partially facilitated by our partners at Penn Organizational Dynamics. This team building seminar helps each team start to establish an efficient, positive working relationship while also building consensus around a particular policy area of focus. The goal is for each team to end the evening with a pretty clear idea about the policy initiative that they will be working on.
Workshop #1
The first workshop gives teams a basic overview of the civic campaign concept and helps them to understand the initial steps of a campaign. These are the things that policy entrepreneurs might do before introducing a proposal to formal political processes: getting the policy research together, identifying lines of influence and key stakeholders, marketing their initiative to the public and building a coalition of support. Teams are asked to bring a rough draft (executive summary-type) policy proposal, which they complete in the 2 weeks between the kick-off and the workshop. Part of the workshop time is set aside for the teams to actually work on these initial plan components, getting individualized feedback from workshop leaders.
Round Robin
The Round Robin is a preliminary judging event and an opportunity for teams to test out their ideas on real regional actors. Each team gives several preliminary pitches, in private, to different panels of stakeholders from the Philadelphia region who are working in different sectors on various policy issues. We ask these stakeholders to have a little fun with it – they may be brutally honest – but this is a good way for teams to practice building those coalitions of support. It is also a good warm-up for the finals. Based on feedback from the panelists, 5 teams advance to the 2nd phase of the competition (Workshop #2 and Finals).
Workshop #2
The 2nd workshop focuses on the legislative “inside game”: drafting legislation, lobbying and navigating formal political processes. Again, part of the time is set aside for the teams to actually work on these initial plan components, getting individualized feedback from workshop leaders.
Finals
The Finals event is an opportunity for each of the final 5 teams to fully present its plan to a panel of judges. Presentations are followed by a short break and a reception, at which the winning team is announced. Check the calendar for the latest info on event dates, times, and locations.
Judges
Judges include elected leaders, other regional policy actors and experts from the Penn community.
Prizes
The winning team receives $2,500 in charitable funds to donate to an organization of its choice AND $2,500 in individual scholarship funding to be divided at the team’s discretion. In addition, the winning team’s plan is published and widely distributed as an official Penn report. Fels sends the plan to a network of media outlets, public leaders, Penn alumni and other supporters in over 50 markets across the country, highlighting the winning team’s work as a model of interdisciplinary cooperation and policy innovation. All 5 final plans are published on the Challenge web page.
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