Former President Ronald Reagan liked to say that “government is not the solution to our problem, the government is the problem.” That is a marvelous motto, but not if you want the government to offer decent transportation services, provide potable drinking water, or protect your health.

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Today, the picture is quite different in Greenville. More than 130 girls from seven local schools have enrolled in the Girl Scouts. Funding for dues and uniforms has been secured, along with troop leaders, and a model for Girl Scout outreach has emerged that has the potential to be replicated in other urban communities.

The catalyst for all this progress is a trio of resourceful and determined Saint Peter’s graduate students who made “Girl Scouts in Greenville: It Takes a Village” their capstone project to complete their Master of Public Administration (MPA) degrees.

“Start small. Think big,” is how Philip Plotch, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the MPA program, urges students to approach the capstone project. “The idea is to work on a local problem,” he explained. “Students can’t solve homelessness in the United States, but they may be able to impact homelessness in Journal Square. If you solve local problems, you create a model for others to emulate.”

Devan Tierney ’19 knew she wanted to bolster opportunities for girl empowerment. At the time of the capstone project, she was development and communications coordinator at WomenRising Inc., a nonprofit in Jersey City that assists women and their families to achieve self-sufficiency. “The Girl Scouts have an amazing mission and they need to be in Jersey City,” said Tierney, who was joined on the project by Henriette Diene ’19 and Talah Hughes ’17, ’19.

Once the team researched and identified the challenges in creating and sustaining Girl Scout troops, they began to work the problem from different angles. An initial proposal focused on training college students to fill the troop leader void, but the MPA students determined it wasn’t viable in Greenville due to issues of logistics and liabilities. The team pressed on. They wrangled a meeting with Natasha Hemmings, president and CEO of Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey (GSHNJ), engaged with public and charter school principals and conducted extensive, on the-ground outreach to families.

A key turning point came when the MPA team met Elnardo Webster, Ed.D. ’69, project director of Saint Peter’s 21st Century CCLC Institute of Excellence, an afterschool initiative in collaboration with President Barack Obama Elementary School (P.S. 34) in Jersey City. He provided valuable guidance and committed funding for 25 girls and 21st Century staff members to function as troop leaders.

The MPA students’ efforts also yielded additional teachers and parents to potentially lead troops at participating schools. In fact, with the help of a teacher and two family members, Tierney and Diene began troop meetings at the President Barack Obama Elementary School last spring.

Diene lives in the neighborhood and often bumps into Greenville’s newest Girl Scouts. “This is a sustainable plan we’ve created,” said the MPA candidate, who will graduate from Saint Peter’s in December. The experience also taught Diene skills she hopes to use in grassroots organizing and community development. “I found out that I don’t shy away from challenge and I don’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Hughes, who lives in Beacon, N.Y., said one of the project’s greatest outcomes was the relationship it created between Dr. Webster and the Girl Scouts Emerging Markets Team, an initiative to grow scouting in communities where the organization is underrepresented. The partnership has the potential to expand the volunteer pool in Jersey City exponentially and bring 300 to 400 more Girl Scouts into the leadership program.

“Making that connection was the grand finale,” said Hughes, a grants assistant at Cornerstone Family Healthcare, a nonprofit primary and preventative health provider. “That gave the project a sense of accountability and sustainability.”

Tierney, who has been promoted since earning her MPA, said growing Girl Scout troops in Greenville is now under the purview of the Emerging Markets Team. “We hope the work that was started progresses into the school year and future,” she said. “It really does take a village.”

Their professor is suitably impressed. “This was an amazing accomplishment on the part of these students,” said Dr. Plotch. “They are not willing to give up. And their idealism helped them do something that others couldn’t get done.”

Hoboken City Council member Vanessa Falco, MPA �17 recently met with students and alumni at Pete�s Place. She talked about starting a nonprofit, politics, governing and career opportunities.

Falco received her Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from Saint Peter�s in May 2017 and six months later, she was elected to the Hoboken City Council. She has focused her efforts on bringing new affordable housing units to the city. Falco talked about the importance of developing strategic partnerships with community groups and other council members. She said the MPA program gave her the confidence to take her career to the next level. She credited the program�s faculty for teaching her the skills that have helped her improve Hoboken�s quality of life.

Five Master of Public Administration (MPA) students represented Saint Peter�s University in a national event sponsored by the international Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration on February 24.

The day-long event simulated how governments might react to an influx of asylum seekers. Henriette Diene �19, Erica Rodriguez �19, Talah Hughes �19, Johanna Soriano �20 and Devan Tierney �19 identified benefits that refugees contribute to a host country and then evalsuated policies that would facilitate their integration into a host society.

The program tested the students’ skills in addressing a critical real-world crisis. The Saint Peter�s MPA students took on governmental cabinet-level positions and then a simulation determined how their policies affected citizens, the economy and the migrants themselves.

On Saturday, January 26, the Saint Peter’s University chapter of Pi Alpha Alpha (PAA), the international honor society for public affairs and administration, held its inaugural induction ceremony. PAA is a program run by and a registered trademark of the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). Six current students and 22 returning alumni from the MPA program were inducted into the honor society, pledging to uphold the honor society’s core principles of scholarship, leadership and excellence. Philip Plotch, Ph.D., director of the MPA program, was also inducted as the chapter’s advisor.

The honor society is under the leadership of Founding President David Caracta, MPA ’18 and Founding Vice-President Jessica Kennedy, MPA ’18. 

Current Students: Jose Alcantara �19, Daarina Chess �19, Henriette Diene �19, Desiree Gomez �19, Talah Hughes �19 and Devan Tierney �19

Returning Alumni: Leo Brennan �14, �17, Maria Camacho �18, David Caracta �18, Claire Corea �17, Alicia D’Amato �17, Mallory Earle �14, �16, Sherif Elias �18, Emily Fermin �17, Christopher Filiciello �17, Mariluz Garcia-Diaz �15, Donald Goncalves �17, Monique Hardy-Reddick �16, Trena Hinton �18, Jessica Kennedy �18, Sean Lloyd �17, Elizabeth Nunez �14, �17, Margaret Redden �15, Michelle Ricot-Nandkumar �17, Amna Sandhu �09, �15 Jonathan Staunch �17, Qu’londa Stuckey �15 and Ahmed Wing �15, �16

McKnight spoke to the Masters of Public Administration class led by Professor Don Goncalves about important issues such as the 2018 midterm election results, the increase of women running for office, identifying key policy issues that impact the legislative district and lastly, how our MPA students can create their own impact through public service.

The Theresa and Edward O’Toole Library Lecture Series: Transforming the Region’s Transportation System featured a panel discussion on the region’s transportation system led by Philip Plotch, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science and director of the Master of Public Administration Program. In conjunction with the presentation, a display consisting of New York City related books donated to the library by Peter Derrick, Ph.D., transit historian, was on exhibit. The Guarini Institute for Government and Leadership, the public administration program and the Theresa and Edward O’Toole Library sponsored the event. Read more