accomplished
(with a 3.89 g.p.a.)
Eighteen months and 18 classes of public policy, communication and management
(with a 3.89 g.p.a.)
MASTER’S
PUBLIC POLICY
1.) Capstone: participation in the municipal budget process
2.) Policy formulation & implementation
3.) Policy analysis
4.) Policy & program research
5.) Public budgeting
6.) Economic analysis
7.) Foundations of public service
8.) Dam removal policy
COMMUNICATION
9.) Oral communication for public administrators
10.) Communication & advocacy
11.) Digital media law & policy
12.) Broadcast communication
13.) Mediation & negotiation
14.) Information management
MANAGEMENT
15.) Management & human relations skills
16.) Understanding organizations
17.) Management analysis & control
18.) Administrative law
Bridge to advocacy
Law. Communication. Public policy.
Knight’s graduate degree could have derived from any of these three disciplines.
But he chose public administration to bridge his career in media communication to a new career in government (and non-profit) communication. The Master’s of Public Administration curriculum connected communication, policy and management into a single discipline.
He studied an additional class every quarter so he could finish the nine-quarter program in six. Seattle University’s M.P.A. program coordinator advised against the accelerated timeline, arguing the standard two-class workload was already strenuous. Three classes per quarter for 18 straight months, she insisted, would be overwhelming.
But Knight stuck to the three-class-per-quarter schedule all the way through, enduring late nights, early mornings and thousands of pages of policy, management and communication.
After just 18 months, he had finished all of the program’s required 18 classes, while maintaining a 3.89 g.p.a. In August 2011, Knight graduated with students who had started the program one to three years earlier and a full year earlier than any of the students with whom he began the academic journey.
Knight began his graduate studies in Public Administration at Seattle University (pictured here) March 2010 and finished in August 2011.
