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JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS EDUCATION - naspaa

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Operation PSA: The Action Learning of Curiosity and Creativity<br />

APPENDIX C<br />

Transcript of the Undergraduate PSA Presented at the Teaching Public<br />

Administration Conference, May 31-June 8, 2008<br />

How did you learn about public administration<br />

Respondent #1: I learned about it from the former mayor of Grand Rapids<br />

who had made the comment that people weren’t learning civics anymore, so, I<br />

got interested.<br />

Respondent #2: I learned about it from one of my advisors who suggested it<br />

since I wanted to work with nonprofits. My actual major is public relations, but<br />

he suggested public and nonprofit administration for my minor.<br />

Respondent #3: I learned about it at my community college, Muskegon<br />

Community College, when I went and talked to my advisor and she suggested<br />

public administration would be needing a lot of solid educated individuals to fill<br />

the careers in upcoming years.<br />

What does public administration mean to you<br />

Respondent #1: It means making a difference in the lives of people around you<br />

and in your community.<br />

Respondent #2: For me it means having the knowledge to know how I can best<br />

effect the change when I start working with a nonprofit.<br />

Respondent #3: Public administration to me is everything in society…<br />

everything in society that sometimes gets overlooked if people don’t understand<br />

something and to do the research into it, it’s basically everything and how<br />

everything runs.<br />

Do you think you’re in the right field and why<br />

Respondent #1: Absolutely, without a doubt. There is no other field that I can<br />

find that offers such a way to have a hands-on impact on everybody’s daily life.<br />

Respondent #2: I would say I’m definitely in the right field now.<br />

Respondent #3: Definitely, public administration is for me. I think Grand<br />

Valley has a really, really good curriculum and I know that I would like to bring<br />

my experience, my education, and my research into the field and give a very<br />

interesting approach to the ethics and everything that needs to be installed in<br />

public administration.<br />

How important is public administration and do we really need this field<br />

Respondent #1: Public administration is critical to our lives, as I had<br />

mentioned. We really do need this field and particularly at the undergraduate<br />

level like we are. It is one thing to talk about it as an academic and it’s another<br />

thing to actually go out there and impact the lives of people.<br />

Respondent #2: I think public administration is really important and, after<br />

380 Journal of Public Affairs Education

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