Scope of the program

Overall structure

Daina intended to explore Lithuanian government public policies regarding housing for refugees, specifically Afghan refugees after the US let Afghanistan and the Taliban reassumed control. She had done some fieldwork with the Red Cross and had noted some discrimination present in housing these Afghan Muslims in comparison to fewer obstacles in housing Ukranian refugees who are fleeing the conflict with Russia. We agreed to work on a formal public policy paper to examine the effectiveness of existing policies and to examine possible alternatives.

Learning objectives

• Learn how to structure a formal policy paper using established guidelines of university public policy programs.
• Do a thorough literature search for any material speaking directly to factors affecting refugee resettlement government public policy, especially the Baltic Area.
• Learn how to write an abstract and an introduction and what the difference is in the two.
• Learn how to use APA style to do in-text citations and a bibliography.
• Find and discuss both student and professional journals which might be interested in this paper and what each expects in submissions.
• Become aware of how to identify and weigh the competing interests in the stakeholders involved in refugee resettlement.
• Identify possible options for a refugee resettlement program and then choose which would be most effective in Lithuania.

What challenges did she face?

• As a junior student, she had very little experience in writing a research paper.
• She had a few research topics in mind and needed help narrowing and deepening her ideas into a realistic form suitable for a research paper.

How did our program help her?

• With guidance from her mentor, she learnt to structure a formal policy paper, from formulating her research objectives to referencing in the APA style.
• Daina learnt to do a thorough literature research pertaining to her topic of interest.
• As one of her goals is to publish this research paper, she received further guidance on improving her research paper to meet publishing standards.

Matched professor in Government Public Policy:

The mentor is a lecturer at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University. Prior to this, she was an Editor and Reporter for Contra Coasta Times where she designed and wrote for the Religion and Ethics segment weekly.

Recommendation letter

“I would absolutely recommend Daina. No hesitation on my part, were I on an admissions committee I would accept her. She would make maximum use of the opportunity and bring credit to the school.

She is amazing. She is so skilled she would have no problem being one of my college undergrad students now. She is self-disciplined, extremely intelligent, serious about becoming successful, articulate and willing to work to achieve her plans.

Daina should try to have her work published in a professional journal. She mentioned wanting to so some writing for NGOs and I think she should do so. I can also see her expanding her paper as an honors thesis as a university student. She has all the skills of a good academician or a dedicated policy professional and she would do well in a career as either. She may make valuable contributions in research on refugee resettlement in the course of future training and career.“

Lecturer from Duke University

Excerpts from the student’s work

Daina wrote a government public policy research paper on “To what extent are the governmental programs supporting refugee housing in Lithuania successful?”