|
Director of the 2013-2014 Jean Picker Semester-in-Washington
Program: Brent Durbin bdurbin@email.smith.edu
The Jean Picker Semester-in-Washington Program is a
first-semester program open to Smith junior and senior government majors and to other
Smith juniors and seniors with appropriate background in the social sciences. It
provides students with an opportunity to study processes by which public policy is
made and implemented at the national level. Students are normally resident in Washington
from the June preceding the semester through December.
Applications for enrollment
should be made through the director of the Semester-in-Washington Program no later
than November 1 of the preceeding year. Enrollment is limited to 12 students, and
the program is not mounted for fewer than six.
Before beginning the semester in Washington,
the student must have satisfactorily completed at least one course in American national
government at the 200 level selected from the following courses: 200, 201, 202, 206,
207, 208, and 209. In addition, a successful applicant must show promise of capacity
for independent work. An applicant must have an excess of two credits on her record
preceding the semester in Washington.
For satisfactory completion of the Semester-in-Washington
Program, 14 credits are granted: four credits for a seminar in policymaking (411);
2 credits for GOV 413, seminar on political science research; and eight credits for
an independent research project (412), culminating in a long paper.
No student may
write an honors thesis in the same field in which she has written her long paper
in the Washington seminar, unless the department, upon petition, grants a specific
exemption from this policy.
The program is directed by a member of the Smith College
faculty, who is responsible for selecting the interns and assisting them in obtaining
placement in appropriate offices in Washington, and directing the independent research
project through tutorial sessions. The seminar is conducted by an adjunct professor
resident in Washington.
Students participating in the program pay full tuition
for the semester. They do not pay any fees for residence at the college, but are
required to pay for their own room and board in Washington during the fall semester.
|
