University of Wisconsin–Madison students continue to gain hands-on policy experiences through an ongoing collaboration between UniverCity Alliance, the Department of Political Science, and Dane County government.
During the 2024-25 academic year, three students addressed policy analysis needs of Dane County through an internship experience that provided opportunities to practice research skills, give presentations to local government committees, and learn more about their community.
Amy Gangl, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Political Science, said opportunities like these Dane County projects that provide students with applied experiences are important for their professional development.
“These projects give students hands-on experience that you just can’t get in a classroom,” Gangl said. “Learning to apply research and skills to on-the-ground policy problems will be so beneficial to these students as they graduate and begin their careers.”
The Dane County Board of Supervisors partnered with UniverCity from 2017-19, and starting in 2022, UniverCity has supported the county by pairing a couple of students each semester to work on policy analysis projects. During the 2024-25 academic year, students assessed financing models, evaluated access to community gardens, and continued work on water recreation.
“We are grateful for our ongoing partnership with Dane County. Continuing to plug students into real-world projects that benefit our community partners is what UniverCity is all about,” UniverCity Alliance Managing Director Megan McBride said.
Sustainability and Program Evaluation Coordinator Lisa MacKinnon said the Office of the Dane County Board enjoys working with the UniverCity Alliance students and values their contributions to the office’s work and to the Dane County community.
“County Board staff and, at times, individual County Board Supervisors collaborate with multidisciplinary UW faculty, students, and community stakeholders, strengthening our connections to the community we serve,” MacKinnon said. “The students often bring fresh energy and emerging policy discussions from their studies.”
In return, MacKinnon said, the students receive mentoring in government process and policy development, and gain insights into “how the sausage gets made,” while honing research, writing, and presentation skills on a diverse range of policy topics.
The student interns work with the County Board Office staff to gather data and conduct analysis on issues of interest to the County Board for potential future policy action or budget investment, diving deep into topics that are important to the Dane County community. For example, Surya Sethi, a sophomore majoring in political science and international studies, spent two semesters assessing community gardens throughout the county and evaluating how to increase engagement in the gardens throughout the whole year.
“Not only are community gardens a great way to increase access to food, but it’s also a great thing to do to create bonds with the people that live around you,” Sethi said.
Sethi’s project started with evaluating how to maintain community engagement in communal gardens during the winter. Expanding into a second semester of work, her project also addressed where there are gaps in community garden locations and who participates in the gardens. This work involved creating and distributing a survey to gather data on garden use and any barriers to access and analyzing that data to inform policy recommendations.
Sethi said the experience strengthened her research and analysis skills, which will benefit her as she pursues a job in government after graduation.
“Getting this experience of working in a local government is really great and in line with what I want to do,” Sethi said. “You’re directly working on projects that the local government is in the process of pursuing and that’s been really cool to be involved in.”
Brody Seaton, a sophomore majoring in political science and economics, is expanding work completed by UW–Madison students in Spring 2023 addressing water recreation use in Dane County. That project involved surveying county residents about how they use the county’s waterways.
For Seaton’s project, he analyzed the survey results and compared them to a study from 2012 to determine how people in Dane County use water recreation resources and how their experience is affected by factors like algae and water levels.
While Seaton gained technical expertise in data analysis and visualization, as well as confidence in these new skills, he also learned how much people care about their community’s resources.
“A really cool takeaway that I’ve gotten from this is that people are really interested and invested in improving their city and their county,” Seaton said.
Ava Singh, a sophomore double majoring in political science and information science, also built on a previous Dane County policy analysis project on Social Impact Bonds, which are public-private partnerships that finance social services through performance-based contracts.
Singh, who is also pursuing certificates in international development and education, gathered a list of criteria for existing programs that would be most suitable for this financial model and investigated areas of application. She presented her results to the Dane County Executive Committee on Feb. 6.
“It’s more pressure working with a community partner. They’re relying on me to do a good job,” Singh said. “It was very motivating to know that the research I was doing was needed, and it was valuable.”
Singh appreciated gaining experiences in professional communication, presenting to committees, and writing case briefs.
“It just helped my academic life so much because it made me feel so useful,” Singh said. “It was really fulfilling, and it was a really good collaborative experience with Dane County.”
–Abigail Becker