Development Practice Lab I

DP-Labs I & II are two full-semester, 3-credit courses with a first-year spring course focused on skills and tools around program design and a second-year fall course focused on skills around program management and leadership. The DP-Labs will bookend MPA-DP students’ 3-month professional summer placements, allowing for DP-Lab I skills to be applied over the summer and for DP Lab II to process those experiences as real case studies and examples. These skills will be applied to final semester capstone projects and allow students to synthesize lessons learned for their eventual job search and career development. DP-Lab I is designed to introduce students to key tools, techniques, and approaches used by development practitioners when diagnosing problems and designing programs.  Throughout the semester, students will receive hands-on training by experienced practitioners in high priority skill areas, while looking at communications and ethics and power as cross-cutting themes that can be applied to all skills.