The Master of Public Administration (MPA) Program at St Cloud State University has been tailored in a way that mentors and prepares its graduates to become successful and effective future public practitioners. The program exposes students to topics that are central in the field of public administration. The five core NASPAA competency areas that the MPA program has taught us for the last two years are: having the ability to lead and manage in public governance, to participate and contribute to the policy process, the ability to analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems and make decisions, the ability to communicate and interact productively with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry, and last, the ability to articulate …show more content…
For this class, we were required to participate in doing a strategic plan for the School of Public Affairs (SOPA). Our job was to come up with a plan for (SOPA) that was in alignment with the larger St Cloud State University’s long term values and goals. This exercise accorded me an opportunity to see for myself the culture of SOPA and SCSU as it pertains to their long term vision, mission and objectives. Arguably, this was an insightful class because students in the class were given the mandate of facilitating all board meetings which were chaired by the dean of the School of Public Affairs (SOPA). Besides the dean, other attendees included faculty members from various departments and some individuals from the local …show more content…
Having been born outside of the U.S, I have witnessed public servants in Kenya behaving in ways that are contrary to the ideals of a democratic society like the USA. These ideals include upholding regime values which are enshrined in the constitution and in other supporting documents. They include; fairness of the process, equality in treatment of citizens and on the understanding that the foundation for public administrators roles is based on their oath to the Constitution of the United States of