Fall 2011 Practicum and PDPM
All students joining PDPM this Fall should attend the Practice Option Orientation, an information session, on Monday, Aug. 29 (first day of classes) from 6pm-8pm in room 510. New students interested in the Practice option are also welcome to attend.
The Practicum
Taken in the final semester after the prerequisite Program Development Project Management, the Practicum in International Affairs (PIA) is centered around completing a semester-long project assigned by an international organization client. For more information on the Practicum, and to see past and current projects, click here.
The Practicum is taken in the final semester, so you should have 33 completed credits prior to Fall semester. (Exceptions will be made if you are finishing your final 6 credits with the International Field Program in summer 2011, in which case you shall have completed 27 credits.) Permission is not required for Practicum registration, but permission is required for PDPM registration, in which your transcript will be checked for number of credits (excluding Incompletes). Please contact Andrea Kelsey at kelseya@newschool.edu for clearance to register for PDPM. Online Registration for Fall 2011 begins 9am Monday, April 4. New projects will likely be added - and perhaps cancelled -between now and September, and if you have already registered but wish to switch into a new project section, you can Add/Drop.
Class day and time will be determined by the faculty member. Some projects will be more popular, and selection will be first-come-first-served. Projects may also be canceled if too few students enroll. All project teams will be formed and finalized by mid-August (Monday Aug. 29 is the first day of Fall semester). After reading all project descriptions, you should decide on the project of most interest to you, and enroll in that section. For a syllabus: PIA Syllabus Fall 2011
The current Practicum sections and projects are listed below, along with the client organization and associated GPIA Concentration. To read a full description, click on the project title:
Section A (NINT 5961/CRN 4630): Rafat Mahdi
Project: Information and Communications Technology in Disaster and Emergency Relief Operations
Client organization: UN GAID
Associated Concentration: Dev, MC
Meeting place and time: Conference room 609, Tuesday, 4:00-4:55
Section B (NINT 5961/CRN 4631) Faculty: Rafat Mahdi
Project: Strategies to Eliminate Harmful Traditional Practices
Client organization: Equality Now
Associated Concentration: GR
Meeting place and time: Conference room 609,Tuesday, 5:00-5:55
Project: Refugee and Immigrant Resettlement Database
Client organization: International Rescue Committee
Associated Concentration: GR
Meeting time: TBD
Section E (NINT 5961/CRN 4634) Faculty: Mona Shomali
Project: Sustainable Development in Climate Change-Affected Pacific Island States
Client organization: Islands First
Associated Concentration: GR, Dev
Meeting time: Friday
Program Development Project Management (PDPM)
PDPM, the prerequisite course for the Practicum, is taken in the penultimate semester. To register for PDPM you should have 24 completed credits (or 18 if you are planning to do the IFP next summer). Permission is required for PDPM registration, in which your transcript will be checked for number of credits (excluding Incompletes). Please contact Andrea Kelsey at kelseya@newschool.edu for clearance to register.
PDPM provides students the opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of key concepts and skills essential to effective program development and project management. By examining the project cycle through a potential future Practicum project, students learn techniques and tools - needs assessment, logical framework, strategic design, implementation, proposal and report writing, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, advocacy - used in a range of professional contexts. For more information on PDPM and a syllabus, click here: PDPM
Students work on real projects that may become a Practicum the following semester, so in choosing your PDPM project keep in mind that it may be your Practicum. You are not, however, locked into this project as your Practicum the following semester (Spring 2012); if you wish to change to another project for the Practicum you will be free to do so. Whether the project actually becomes a Practicum depends on its success and student interest.
In Fall 2011 there will be three PDPM sections, with projects specific to that section listed under that section. You should register into the section that makes the most sense for your schedule, however you may need to later Add/Drop into a different section to join a specific project.
Section A (NINT 5004 / CRN 1980) Tuesdays 4:00-5:50
Faculty: Mark Johnson
Syllabus for Mark Johnson's section: PDPM Fall11 Johnson
Project: Access to Better Reproductive Health Initiative in Ethiopia
Client organization: EngenderHealth
Associated Concentration: Dev
Client organization: UN GAID
Associated Concentration: Dev, MC
Section B (NINT 5004 / CRN 1784) Thursdays 6:00-7:50
Faculty: Chris London
Project: Communication, Monitoring and Evaluation Mechanisms
Client organization: Conexión Colombia
Associated Concentration:TBD
Project: Combating Trafficking of Women and Girls for Domestic Servitude
Client organization: Equality Now
Associated Concentration: GR
Project: Democratic Transition, Peacebuilding, and Conflict Prevention
Client organization: UNDP
Associated Concentration: GR, Dev
Section C (NINT 5004 / CRN 6245) Fridays 4:00-5:50
Faculty: Mona Shomali
Project: Sustainable Development in Climate Change-Affected Pacific Island States
Client organization: Islands First
Associated Concentration: GR, Dev
Project: Global Economic Governance at the UN
Client organization: NGO Committee on Financing for Development
Associated Concentration: GR, Dev
Project: Democratic Transition, Peacebuilding, and Conflict Prevention
Client organization: UNDP
Associated Concentration: GR, Dev
Client organization: Summer IFP client organization
Associated Concentration: According to project