Development Practice Lab II

Open to MPA-DP Only. Development Practice Labs I & II are two full-semester, 3-credit courses with a first-year spring course focused on skills and tools for project design and a second-year fall course focused on skills around organizational 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 II teaches students skills and tools needed for effective and inclusive organizational management for social impact. It will allow students to process the lessons learned during their summer placements and use those experiences as case studies to understand the skills needed for effective leadership and management.  Throughout the semester students will receive hands-on training by experienced practitioners on different topics, while looking at leadership and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as cross-cutting themes.  The course will run for 13 weeks with each week focused on introducing students to a core topic with class activities including guest practitioners and lecturers, case studies, ethics discussions, role plays, and guided group work.