By Tiffany Murray-Robertson

The American Society of Public Administration (ASPA) has invited three students from the VCU Wilder School to join the Fifth Annual International Young Scholars Workshop in Cape Town, South Africa this summer.

Brittany Keegan, Yali Pang and Michael Perkins, J.D., were among 23 doctoral students from more than 10 universities selected to participate in an intensive 3-day development experience for rising scholars in public policy and administration.

The trio will join a host of students from top-ranked public affairs programs including the University of Indiana at Bloomington, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Rutgers University-Newark.

“This Wilder School is pleased and very proud to have so many of our students recognized by ASPA’s International Young Scholars program,” said Sarah Jane Brubaker, Ph.D., chair of the doctoral program in public policy and administration.

”This is an important opportunity for the students to develop their research and networking skills, and their selection is a strong endorsement of our faculty, program and school.”

The International Young Scholars Workshop aims to strengthen academic and social exchange mechanisms for young scholars and is funded jointly by ASPA, the Conference of Minority Public Administrators and Rutgers University-Newark. The 2016 workshop will focus on research that advances the understanding of global disparities in public policy, public administration, nongovernmental organizations and the communities they serve.

Keegan, Pang and Perkins will engage with distinguished senior scholars in the development of research papers, and interrogate some of the pressing issues currently taking place in South Africa and other nations around matters of inequity, public policy, government administration and community building. Young Scholars are expected to gain new perspectives on the process of conducting empirical research—from topic choice to reviewing the literature, from framing and analyzing, to presenting their research.

The Fifth Annual International Young Scholars Workshop will be held from July 20-23.