Past Spotlights
Will Turner (2001) – High Tech High Charter School
Will graduated in 2001 with his MPIA degree from IR/PS. Upon graduation, Will joined High Tech High, a brand new charter school that strives to provide high school students with a rigorous, personalized, project-based education in preparation for college. The school has a technology focus that manifests itself in the form of technical tools in the classroom, allowing students to become familiar with technology at a young age. As a result of Will's hard work and the work of others, 100% of students from High Tech High's first two graduating classes have enrolled in college. Nearly 60% of these ethnically diverse graduates are first generation college students.
Will not only led the startup efforts for High Tech High, he also helped start a branch campus called High Tech High International, which opened its doors in the 2004-2005 school year. High Tech High International adds an international component to the traditional high school curriculum, including international classes, an immersion program and an exchange program. Students have gone to Baja, England, Peru, China and many other countries.
Will spent the first three years teaching humanities and English classes to 9th and 10th grades. He currently teaches a class in music performance, which consists of lessons in guitar, keyboard and bass. He says that students learn popular songs from different genres of music and are encouraged to come up with creative takes on familiar songs. Will also teaches a speech and debate class.
In addition to being a teacher, Will also serves as an outreach director, student government advisor, and general advisor to students at High Tech High. He also helps to raise funding for the "Free Lunch" program for children from low-income families. Will credits IR/PS for providing him with the skills he found useful in his amazing contributions to High Tech High. Specifically, the Policy Making Processes class taught him about the incentive structure and motivational forces that drive people's actions were tools that he found helpful in starting up the school. Will said that his international management classes greatly helped him in managing people, both inside the classroom and outside that classroom. Finally, Will said that he found the economics and political science classes he took at IR/PS useful when teaching humanities classes to his students.
Emily Murase (1990) – Council of Foreign Relations
IR/PS alumna Dr. Emily Murase is the Executive Director at the Department on the Status of Women for the City and County of San Francisco. She was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom in July 2003, after serving two terms on the Commission on the Status of Women, during which she chaired the Task Force on the U.N. Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women to oversee the pioneering local CEDAW ordinance that San Francisco passed in 1998. Dr. Murase previously served in the first Clinton White House as Director for International Economic Affairs, and later worked in the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission. She received a BA in Japanese History from Bryn Mawr College and a Ph.D. in Communications from Stanford University.
In 1993, she won the prestigious one-year International Affairs Fellowship from the Council of Foreign Relations, joining the ranks of other noted recipients including our current Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleeza Rice. Founded in 1921, the Council on Foreign Relations is a nonpartisan center for scholars dedicated to producing and disseminating ideas to help policymakers, journalists, students, and interested citizens to better understand foreign policy.
In 1967, CFR established the International Affairs Fellowship Program, designed to advance the professional development of outstanding young Americans between the ages of 27 and 35. Approximately a dozen men and women each year receive an opportunity to broaden their experiences in the field of international affairs. The program bridges the gap between analysis and action in foreign policy through a combination of policy studies and exposure to policymaking. It encourages academics and others from the private sector to serve in a policy-oriented environment through operational experience in public service. Conversely, it permits government officials on leave to study key issues in a scholarly atmosphere free from operational pressures.
Members of CFR include several of our IR/PS Professors: Peter Cowhey, Peter Gourevitch, Stephan Haggard, Miles Kahler, and Lawrence Krause. Dr. Gourevitch also serves as the current Chair of the International Affairs Fellowship committee. In further recognition of UCSD, immigration policy expert Dr. Marc Rosenblum of the Political Science Department has won a CFR International Area Fellowship for 2005-06.
Following is a Q&A session with Dr. Murase on the International Affairs Fellowship:
1. What were the major factors that you believe resulted in your getting the fellowship?
Prof. (then Dean) Gourevitch personally encouraged me to apply. In applying for the fellowship, I spoke with two faculty members who were intimately familiar with the program — Prof. (now Dean) Peter Cowhey, and Prof. Miles Kahler. They all shared with me their first-hand experiences with the program. Dean Cowhey had spent his fellowship year at AT&T while Prof. Kahler conducted research at the International Monetary Fund. The fact that these faculty members were willing and able to provide me with advice, not only during the application process, but also once I had received the fellowship in determining my placement at a federal agency (I ultimately landed in the White House) were crucial.
2. How do you think it has benefited your career?
The fellowship enabled me to engage in international policy issues at a very senior level, despite my very junior age (under 30). From 1993-1994, I served as a Director for International Economic Affairs at the International Affairs Directorate that reported both to the National Economic Council, chaired by Robert Rubin, and the National Security Council under Anthony Lake, later Samuel Berger, in the first Clinton White House. I prepared memoranda to both Rubin and Lake and, on a few occasions, to the President. I staffed interagency policy working groups on agricultural exports, intellectual property, and trade with Asia. It was fascinating to engage in policy discussions at national and international levels. The network of colleagues in international trade and policy I gained was also helpful to me after I returned to academia to pursue a PhD at Stanford University and write about the wireless telecommunications revolution in Japan. It was also great to be in Washington, DC at a time when other IR/PS graduates were also working in international policy throughout the federal government, including the NASA, USTR, USDA, Import-Export Bank, and the State Department. I urge all IR/PS graduates to spend some time in Washington, DC!
3. Is there any other information you would like to share about the IAF Fellowship?
During the fellowship, participants are afforded a small travel allowance. I used my allowance to participate in three different study groups convened at the Council's headquarters in New York City: one focused on US-Japan relations, another on changing democracy, and a third on new technologies. Fellows are also invited to participate in all seminars and meetings of the Council during the fellowship year. I attended over 30 seminars and meetings, going to as many as I could to take full advantage of the_ benefits of the fellowship. At the conclusion of the fellowship, fellows are extended an invitation to join the Council as a term member, which I did.
4. What can you tell us about the Term memberships?
I have sponsored several others to join the Council as term members, and am happy to support the candidacies of IR/PS graduates.
