Master of Public Policy

Internship:
Awards: Oregon: Lottery Scholarship

Growing up in a rural town in western Oregon I wasn't a terrific student and the logging industry was in decline so I joined the Navy after high school. After six years of military service I started training to be a firefighter, but enjoyed the medical training more and ended up working as an EMT. After six more years I was topped out in my position at the ambulance company and I gambled on a job managing an event rental business. After a year and half of success, the owner of the ambulance company I had previously worked for offered the opportunity to return and restructure his medical supply company, but despite turning the business around I was not satisfied with my accomplishment. My wife posed a powerful question to me: If I could do anything, and money wasn't an issue, what would it be? My immediate response was: Whale Biologist! It didn't take long to figure out that my idea was not completely feasible, but what it did tell me is that I wanted to study the life sciences. I returned to school, part time at first, but soon it became clear that I couldn't balance the growing course load and my responsibilities running a business. After a year of doing both I quit my job as a manager and went to school full-time; one of the scariest things I've ever done. At Oregon State University I pursued ecology as an environmental science major. Shortly after my arrival, I got the opportunity to work in a grassland ecology lab that exposed me to scientists in a variety of disciplines. One of the things I discovered was that there are plenty of very smart people doing good science, but that science rarely makes its way into policy. Humans are engaged in activities that are changing natural systems in ways that are leading to immense suffering. I believe that in the next 10-20 years we will have to make very hard decisions about how humanity will continue to live on earth. I would like to be a part of that discussion. That is why I am studying policy at OSU.
Vita

Internship: Governmental Relations Office, Oregon State University

Brian Collins came to the MPP program at Oregon State from an accounting job
for a major energy company in California. His policy interests include
health care and tax reform, and he has enjoyed the mix of theory and
practice in the MPP coursework. Brian is currently interning with the
Governor's Postsecondary Quality Education Commission, where he is helping
the members develop a model for linking higher education funding to quality
outcomes. He has served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for Political
Science and Sociology.

Internship: International Comparative Rural Policy Consortium, Solsona, Spain
Dual Graduate Degree: Applied Anthropology

Internship: Institute for Natural Resources, Oregon University System

I'm Scott, I am a native of Portland, the City of Roses, and a proud product of Portland Public Schools. In 2005 I finished my bachelor's degree in Political Science, with minors in Religion and History, at Pacific Lutheran University, in Tacoma, WA. I spent two years administering Long Term Disability claims at Standard Insurance Company while my wife completed her master's program in teaching at Concordia University. We currently live in Keizer, just north of Salem. For fun we travel to Portland on the weekends to be with our families and we are huge Seahawks, Winter Hawks (WHL hockey), Blazers, and Beaver fans.

I came to OSU's MPP program because of the appeal of an interdisciplinary program that looks at the many aspects of public policy. I am interested in domestic U.S. policy, in particular education, urban recreation, and transportation issues. As a son of Oregon's big city my passion is urban affairs and related social policy issues.

Home Country: China
Internship: Institute for Natural Resources, Oregon University System
Awards: Scholarship to attend the National Education for Women's Leadership Conference

Born in Jinan, a city in China famous for its 72 springs, I grew up under the influence of my biologist grandfather. In my second year at college as a biology major, I joined an expedition to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to save and protect the local endangered sheep--Procapra przewalskii. That experience greatly inspired my dream to be an environmentalist to contribute to China’s environmental protection and conservation.With a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences and a master’s degree in Molecular Cellular Biology, I am now a graduate student in Master of Public Policy Program, focusing on Environmental Policy. My plan for the next step is to pursue a PhD degree in Environmental Sciences.