ENACT Featured in Special Edition of “Public Service Review”
June 26, 2024
The spring 2024 issue of the journal Public Service Review (Volume 5, Issue 1) exclusively features ENACT.
Published by the Stennis Center for Public Service, a bipartisan legislative branch agency created by Congress in 1988 to promote and strengthen the highest ideals of public service in America, this journal is distributed to members of Congress, universities and colleges, and public servants in local, state, and federal government entities across the United States.
In this special issue:
- Brandeis alumni Elaina Pevide ’20, Vishni Samaraweera ’24 and Ravi Simon ’19 write about their experiences in ENACT Director Melissa Stimell’s Brandeis ENACT course “Advocacy for Policy Change” and the lessons they carry with them from ENACT.
- Randolph-Macon College student Wesley Gerschick writes about what he learned from advocating at the Virginia General Assembly as a student in Virginia Faculty Fellow Richard Meagher’s ENACT class.
- ENACT Assistant Director David Weinstein shares an overview of the ENACT program.
- ENACT Faculty Fellow Lynne Chandler-Garcia of the United States Air Force Academy shares her experience teaching an ENACT course, and the considerations involved in teaching about legislative advocacy at a military academy.
- Massachusetts State Senator Becca Rausch (Brandeis ’01) is interviewed by Brandeis ENACT students Dalia Moran ’24 and Arianna Jackson ’25 about her commitment to ENACT.
- ENACT Faculty Fellow Jennifer Seelig is interviewed by University of Utah ENACT student Tomas Cruz Villalvazo about her experience teaching an ENACT course.
- Maine State Representative Ambureen Rana is interviewed by Julian Ober, an alum of Faculty Fellow Rob Glover’s University of Maine ENACT course.
ENACT "shares [the Stennis Center's]...mission, seeking to help students engage in their democracy through on-the-ground experience with the state legislative process,” writes Brian Pugh, Executive Director of the Stennis Center and the ENACT Faculty Fellow for the state of Mississippi, in his introduction to the issue. “It is this shared work that prompted the Spring 2024 special edition of Public Service Review, featuring work from students, alumni, and faculty of Brandeis University’s ENACT program.”
Read the special issue of Public Service Review here.
ABOUT THE STENNIS CENTER
The Stennis Center for Public Service is a bipartisan legislative branch agency created by Congress in 1988 to promote and strengthen the highest ideals of public service in America. One of the Stennis Center’s specific duties outlined by Congress is to “foster a sense of civic responsibility among the youth of the United States,” which is straight from the Stennis Center’s enabling legislation (P.L. 100-458—Oct. 1, 1988; Subtitle B). Public Service Review is the latest effort to do just that – attract young people to public service – through young voices for service.
ABOUT PUBLIC SERVICE REVIEW
Public Service Review is a journal dedicated to the publication and dissemination of young people’s reflections and experiences in the public service sector through professional or volunteer opportunities. The purpose of this journal is to acknowledge and influence the important and substantive work carried out by young people in local, state, and federal government entities, universities and colleges, and nonprofit organizations across the United States.
ABOUT ENACT
The mission of ENACT: The Educational Network for Active Civic Transformation is to teach college students about democracy through engagement with the state legislative process. Built on knowledge, cooperation, justice and integrity, ENACT is a national, inter-collegiate non-partisan program based at Brandeis University. ENACT empowers students to be active participants in democratic processes through connecting with policymakers and community organizations; conducting research and analysis; and informing public policy with evidence and expertise. In ENACT courses, student teams learn through direct engagement in this work: traveling to their state capital; meeting with and lobbying legislators; strategizing with advocacy organizations; and creating outreach materials to advance their chosen issues.