Nurturing Tomorrow’s Leaders

Published Date September 21, 2023

News Type Public Address

 As fall semester opened, Associate Professor Erynn Beaton met student members of the John Glenn Civic Leadership Community to discuss their concerns about the new school year and ways they can become civically engaged. (Credit: Majesti Brown)

Chris Adams, Glenn College director of student services and programs, talks to high school students Gavin Jordan, left, and Nikhil Cherukupally at the Glenn College Democracy Camp. (Credit: Majesti Brown)

By Joan Slattery Wall

If you consider factors such as declining trust in institutions, partisan politics, social injustices and lack of action in Washington, D.C., you might understand if youth today beat a retreat from public service.

Truth is, students at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs see those issues and want to fix them.

“I like the fact that when our students turn on the news, they don’t turn the channel,” said Chris Adams, the college director of student services and programs. “They ask the question: What can I do in my own sphere of influence to solve the problems and help change the world?”

“The excitement our students have for going out and being engaged members of their community and working to solve these problems energizes me,” Adams said.

Take Jamiya Barnett, for example.

You’ll read this on the third-year public management, leadership and policy student’s LinkedIn page: “I aspire to enact policies to help save the world and have a positive impact on marginalized communities.”

That’s not just talk.

Barnett has been a political intern with the Ohio Environmental Council through the Glenn College Ohio Government Internship Program, grasped an opportunity as a legislative intern with the City of Cincinnati and, this summer, served as a legal intern with the Honorable Judge Nicole L. Sanders of the Hamilton County Common Pleas Drug Treatment and Recovery Court.

I decided to pursue public affairs at the Glenn College to make a tangible change within my communities.

Jamiya Barnett

Student, Bachelor of Arts in Public Management, Leadership and Policy

To support her interest in a career in environmental policy and law, she added social and environmental issues and history as minors.

Jamiya Barnett, left, talks to Judge Nicole L. Sanders during her internship at the Hamilton County Common Pleas Drug Treatment and Recovery Court.

“While learning to be a public policy expert in my major, my minor helps focus on my interest in helping alleviate environmental issues in all communities,” she said. “The history minor helps expand my knowledge of the past so I can make smart and ethical decisions when influencing policy and legislation later in life based on historical facts and evidence.”

She also signed up for NEW Leadership Ohio, a five-day residential program hosted by the Glenn College, which introduces collegiate women throughout Ohio to successful female leaders and skills needed to become public service leaders.

“I participated in NEW Leadership Ohio to learn from women in the field who are breaking down barriers and making changes while doing what they love,” she said. “NEW Leadership Ohio taught me that the sky is the limit, and I can achieve anything I put my mind to. It showed me the importance of having a group of like-minded women supporting you at all times. This program also taught me the value of my voice and how it is important for me to be heard by others.”

Planting Seeds for Public Service

Nancy Bocskor, an advisor and commissioner for NEW Leadership Ohio, aims to redefine political leadership. She launched her consulting company, The Nancy Bocskor Company, in 1990; she teaches at The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management and is the development director at Business for America.

“American democracy has never been so fragile. The public’s trust in all institutions — church, government, judicial — are at all-time lows,” Bocskor said. “A strong civics education helps battle conspiracy theories and misinformation spread by the internet, promotes civil discourse and creates stronger communities.”

NEW Leadership Ohio, she said, reinforces both the rights and responsibilities of students.

No other country in the world offers the opportunities that we have in the United States — and NEW Leadership Ohio helps students learn how to become leaders in their communities.

Nancy Bocskor

Advisor and Commissioner, NEW Leadership Ohio

“Passion without a plan is just noise — and there’s way too much noise in America right now,” said Bocskor. “We equip students to cut through the noise and create activism plans with achievable steps.”

Leading by Example

A Student and Candidate

In just his first year at the Glenn College, Josh Hickman ran for his local school board of education. 

Faculty at the Glenn College see their students as idealistic in their vision of the future.

“All of the students that come into my classes are really wanting to make a difference in the world,” says Associate Professor Erynn Beaton, acknowledging that sometimes they feel defeated in today’s political climate and eagerly seek her guidance on ways to turn their passions into purpose.

“It’s about making small incremental steps,” Beaton added. “I think during their time in college, they’re at a moment where they have a lot of time to prepare themselves to be an instrument of change. One of the final assignments in my Nonprofit Organizing for Diversity and Justice class is to write a reflection about their personal theory of change, to say, ‘What is it about the world that I want to see changed, how does my vision of the real world look different than the current one, and how do I go about creating that?’

Associate Professor Erynn Beaton talks to Andy Thomas, a first-year public affairs major in the John Glenn Civic Leadership Community, about his idea of how voting is a great opportunity for civic engagement. (Credit: Majesti Brown)

She offers tangible suggestions: Sit on a board. Donate. Volunteer. Seek leadership roles in the extracurricular activities that match their interests.

Students Drive Positive Change

Meet some Glenn College undergraduate students who know their passion for service and put it into practice — even before they’ve earned their degrees.

In the past academic year, she and one of her students, Ruby Lobert, helped the City of Columbus make decisions in a Participatory Grantmaking Process about where to spend American Rescue Act funds, and she encouraged another, Clovis Westlund, when they decided to organize a panel, Social Change Careers in Nonprofits, for a student event.

Beaton also shares with students her own civic engagement activities.

She went to the Ohio Statehouse to testify against Senate Bill 83, a sweeping higher education bill; holds an appointed position on the Charitable Advisory Council for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office; and delivers Meals on Wheels with her family.

To lead by example, you have to let students know what you’re doing.

Erynn Beaton

Glenn College Associate Professor

She considers advocacy part of her literature and research. For example, she and Associate Professor Megan LePere-Schloop produced “Speaking Truth to Power in Fundraising: A Toolkit,” a set of resources for fundraising professionals to use in addressing sexual harassment in the profession.

Beaton sees the push for engagement coming mostly from students.

“They really, really want it,” she said. “They’re driving things, and I think we’re kind of trying to keep up and give them the opportunities.”

Opening Doors

A few more examples of how the Glenn College encourages engaged citizenship:

At the Glenn College Democracy Camp, Ohio high school students explore ways to engage in the democratic process while advocating for their priorities and serving their communities.
Our High School Internship Program helps rising Central Ohio high school seniors gain hands-on experience in public sector organizations while earning college credit.
The Glenn College created two new courses, “Equity, Justice and Public Service” and “Civics, the Making of Law and the Development and Implementation of Public Policy” (co-taught with The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law) and converted four existing courses for Ohio State’s new undergraduate general education program. Citizenship is the only theme all Ohio State students, regardless of major, must complete.
Dean Trevor Brown is working with peer deans across the country to make the case for public policy education and its community impact. He and academic leaders nationwide serve on an American Academy for Arts and Sciences workgroup, Building Democratic Citizens in Higher Education, that aims to advance democratic citizenship as a campus institutional priority.
Our Washington Academic Internship Program selects outstanding Ohio State undergraduates from any major to spend a semester in Washington, D.C., as John Glenn Fellows in full-time positions from the U.S. Congress to think tanks and advocacy groups.

Read the latest edition of Public Address, the Glenn College magazine.