For my practicum, I took CPSP 349T, a scholars course on Infrastructure, Society, and Service. One of the reasons I chose to take this class as the local community around Prince George’s county is very different from where I grew up, and could use improvements with regard to infrastructure, public services, and safety.

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One of the aspects of this course that stuck with me the most was the importance and integral nature of infrastructure in government today, from town hall meetings all the way up to the national government. Though infrastructure isn’t glamorous (and thus faces challenges such as low public attention & poor funding allocation), it is intertwined with the lives of all Americans (globally as well, but the class only focused on the US); we take it for granted and don’t realize the extent to which infrastructure enables us to live our lives (street lights, road quality, public cleaning/maintenance, construction, funding, etc.)

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In our class, one of the primary ways that we evaluated infrastructure was through a stakeholder analysis, where we consider all of the constituents who might use or frequent an area and evaluate if their needs are being met. This requires considering as many viewpoints as possible, as well as constituents who might otherwise be underrepresented or overlooked. The stakeholder analysis I completed for University Blvd. x Stadium Drive can be seen below this reflection. Overall, I think that taking this course has made me a more open-minded thinker, as well as more adaptable due to changing the course to a virtual model and learning under COVID circumstances. I hope to apply this to my career by considering all situations from more multifaceted perspectives as opposed to making snap judgments or maintaining stolid or stubborn positions on policy topics and in life in general. My practicum experience has enhanced my instinct to play the devil’s advocate and look out for the “little guy”, as well as nuanced or unorthodox ideas that might not normally be considered.

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During the rest of my time at UMD, I hope to graduate with a double degree in Music Performance & Public Policy, this year hopefully completing our last virtual semester along with the Scholar’s program. I have made an effort to finish my general education requirements early, in the interest of taking a wider variety of more interesting classes in my final two years at the school. I have also been interested in being a TA in some of the classes I’ve taken in my underclassmen years, but haven’t been able to do so due to scheduling constraints. I hope to rectify that in the coming semesters before I graduate.

Though my post-graduation plans are far from confirmed, I hope to apply to attend law school after my senior year, perhaps with a brief hiatus in the workforce. A degree I’d be interested in would be Music Industry Studies (record labels, copyright laws, entertainment regulations), which would successfully combine my interests in public policy and music performance. With regard to potential job search I might experience, I hope to incorporate the character traits and abilities I learned in public leadership, such as perseverance, ease of public speaking, ambition, and a mix of hard and soft power in order to advance my career.

 

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Elevator Pitch

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Hi, my name is Roland Kahn, and I’m a second-year undergraduate at the University of Maryland studying public policy and music performance. I wanted to share with you some of my experiences with the Public Leadership Scholars program and why I think they make me a candidate worthy of your consideration for this position. The college park scholars program is an entirely different experience than a standard education at a large state school such as UMD. I have collaborated with a group of like-minded (and some not so like-minded!) but all academically achieving peers, and have studied a wide variety of leadership topics and scenarios, from philosophy lectures to debates. I have learned true collaboration skills, how to build up or dismantle an argument, and perhaps most importantly to take action when something should be done and not wait for someone else to do it. These are all qualities that I possessed before but truly developed under Professor Washburn and the scholar's program.