Gilbert 1

Kory Gilbert

Dr. Beth Fowler

PS 1010

26 April 2017

PS 1010 Reflection

I have learned a lot during this PS 1010 course. It taught me the inner workings of policy

and who is involved, as well providing me an opportunity to volunteer within the community and

understand the impact I can make. Before PS 1010, I believed that policy making was very

complicated and mostly involved those in power. However, this course helped me understand the

various steps of policy making and how many people are involved. Policy is not just something

controlled by the government sphere, but exists throughout the market, civic, and even family

spheres at various levels. There are also steps necessary to policy implementation, such as

identifying the problem, taking survey of public opinion, and choosing the proper administration

for implementation. It amazed me how many steps policy implementation must go through and

neglect of certain steps can have a huge impact on the success of the policy. PS 1010 made me

consider the political environment we are in and recognize the various structural barriers that

exist in solving a problem through policy implementation.

One aspect of PS 1010 that I enjoyed most and helped me apply my class knowledge to

my surroundings is volunteering at Burton International Academy for my service learning

portion. While volunteering there as a part of learning the root causes of low graduation rates, I

found myself identifying various structural barriers that organizations face while trying to

achieve a solution. I enjoyed tutoring the students and it encouraged me to continue being

involved in my community to help overcome these structural barriers and find solutions.