Thirty-six students from colleges and universities throughout the United States and abroad have been selected to participate in the Woodrow Wilson School's 2008 Junior Summer Institute (JSI). This year's program, which began June 12 and will end August 1, will help prepare students for graduate study and careers in public policy and international affairs.

JSI is designed to provide participants with the tools of critical thinking, speaking, writing, and quantitative reasoning and the skills and experiences necessary to create, analyze, implement, evaluate, and affect policy in a multicultural, multi-ethnic society. Coursework includes six weeks of policy-related classroom instruction and one week of field research, including a policy workshop. As part of the program's culmination, students will present a comprehensive final report on a current policy issue that will encompass the skills acquired and the knowledge base gained over the prior seven weeks. This year's policy workshops will address an international and domestic issue.  

Coursework includes seven weeks of policy-related classroom instruction, including a policy workshop on either a domestic or international policy issue.  As part of the program's culmination, students will present a comprehensive final report on a current policy issue that will encompass the skills acquired and the knowledge base gained over the prior seven weeks.

The domestic policy workshop will address waiver and transfer policies in the juvenile justice system in New Jersey.  Taught by Craig Levine M.P.A./J.D. '91, Senior Counsel and Policy Director for the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, workshop participants will examine the circumstances under which children's delinquency cases can be transferred to adult criminal court.

The international policy workshop titled "U.S.-European Relations: Global Partners or Global Competitors" will be taught by Ambassador James Gadsden M.C.F. '85, former U.S. ambassador to Iceland from 2002 to 2005 and U.S. foreign service veteran. The objective of this course will be to develop U.S. policy recommendations toward Europe that advance our national security objectives. Central to this will be an assessment of whether (and to what extent) the U.S. and Europe will be partners or competitors in addressing global security challenges such as terrorism, Iran's nuclear proliferation, Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East instability, a resurgent Russia, conflicts in Africa, and transborder crime, health, and environmental threats.

Five of this year's JSI students are Thomas R. Pickering fellows. The Pickering Fellowship is sponsored by the U.S. State Department; undergraduate students are prepared academically and professionally to enter the United States Department of State Foreign Service upon completion of their graduate degree in International Relations.

Established over two decades ago, JSI convenes rising college seniors to provide the unique opportunity to interact and discuss a broad range of coursework, field research, and policy analysis with leaders within the public policy, government and nonprofit sectors.

It is part of the Public Policy & International Affairs Fellowship Program (PPIA), a national consortium of top public policy and international affairs graduate schools that prepare college students for advanced degrees and careers serving the public good. In addition to Princeton's PPIA Junior Summer Institute, there are four other schools that host a PPIA Summer Institute, including the University of California at Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Michigan.