The Clinton School graduated its sixth class of 31 students Saturday from the Master of Public Service degree program.

The graduates entered the program two years ago from across Arkansas, the country and the world. They represent 13 states and five countries including Canada, Kenya, Nepal, South Africa and Ukraine.

“This graduating class represents the diversity that is the strength of our country and the global community,” President Bill Clinton said in a recorded video address to the graduates.

“I’m so impressed, graduates, with the work you’ve done,” Clinton added. “And even more important I’m looking forward to seeing where your careers take you as public servants in the future.”

Through the school’s field service program, the graduates completed more than 22,000 hours in public service projects, Clinton School Dean Skip Rutherford said in his welcome address.

In his commencement address, the school’s founding Dean David Pryor challenged the graduates to return “civility” and “bipartisanship” to public service in America.

“We need to build those bridges that have been torn down by fear, hate, distrust and suspicion,” he said.

Through six classes the school has now graduated more than 150 students from the MPS program. Unlike traditional programs in public affairs or public policy, 30 percent of the MPS program is completed through hands-on service projects.

The Class of 2012 completed more than 70 public service projects, including international projects in 19 countries.

Arkansas 2032 attendees with state legislators who spoke at the conference.

Extending legislative term limits, encouraging regional collaboration in economic development, passing a sales tax increase for higher education and expanding the “Natural State” branding campaign to promote healthy lifestyles are among the state policy recommendations issued today by student leaders from roughly 40 Arkansas colleges and universities.

The students released their recommendations for state policymakers today at the “Arkansas 2032″ conference hosted by the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. The recommendations covered several topics including economic development, public health, race relations, the aging population, K-12 public education and higher education. They will be forwarded to state elected officials and community leaders. Click here for a full list of the recommendations.

Among the recommendations are:

-    Extend state legislative term limits to 20 years collectively between both the House of Representatives and the Senate
-    Pass a half-cent sales tax increase designated specifically to higher education to supplement, not supplant, existing revenues
-    Develop a uniform distance-learning model that incorporates all Arkansas higher education institutions
-    Ensure entrepreneurs are able to obtain financing, including development of more micro-finance opportunities
-    Reduce dependence on standardized testing scores for learning assessment
-    Identify coalitions to help bridge regional gaps that currently exist within the state and adapt strategies to encourage more regional collaboration
-    Implement financial literacy curricula in the public school system (K-12)
-    Expand the Natural State advertising brand to include health promotion to increase awareness of existing natural resources for active living
-    Develop a multimedia public advertising campaign to every generational market featuring cultural icons addressing racism
-    Mandate K-12 and higher education campuses to have on-campus diversity professionals and/or department that provide preventative and responsive race relations programming.
-    Better utilize and promote the home health care system to facilitate independent living
-    Create a third party oversight entity that will identify and expose racial disparities in public systems addressing disparities in sentencing in our judicial system, governmental contracts and racial profiling by individuals of authority

The conference brought together student leaders from the state’s two- and four-year, public and private colleges and universities, as well as student representatives from UAMS, the University of Arkansas Law School and the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law. The presidents and chancellors of each campus nominated the students to attend the conference.

“This whole process has been in the hands of the students,” said Clinton School student Nate Looney, organizer of the event. “Based on their input, the topics of discussion were chosen for each day. This is important because the students are not only charged with talking through these issues, but we want them to collectively come up with recommendations that will positively impact the direction of our state. For this to work, the students had to be in complete control of the process.”

The Clinton School provided background research on each issue to prepare students to discuss these topics. In addition, experts from across the state participated in panel discussions for the students. The panelists included current elected officials, community and business leaders, and leaders in higher education.

Arkansas 2032 is supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Department of Heritage. In addition, private gifts were made by Verizon Wireless, the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, the McLarty family and the Entergy Charitable Foundation.

Older youth in Arkansas foster care may soon receive improved transitional programs following research conducted by four Clinton School students.

Todun Afolabi of Osun State, Nigeria, Dylan Buffalo of Las Vegas, Nev., Russell Carey of Jacksonville, Ark., and Leslie Miller Harris of Clarksville, Ark., partnered with the Arkansas Department of Human Services Division of Children and Family Services to complete the study.

Their research focused on foster youth between the ages of 14 and 21 with special placement considerations, such as those with a mental and behavioral disabilities; teen parents; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning teens; previously incarcerated youth; sex offenders; and runaways or homeless youth.

The goal of the seven-month study was to find model programs from other states that Arkansas could implement to benefit members of these target populations. Emphasis was placed on finding programs that have undergone rigorous evaluations and demonstrate a clear link between the key elements of the program and the improved outcomes for foster youth.

“I want older youth in foster care to have access to the best possible programs that will meet their unique needs and prepare them for living independently,” said Jonathan Dunkley, state independent living coordinator for Transitional Youth Services. “The research done by the Clinton School students will be used as a guidebook by Arkansas providers that want to create programs to service older youth in foster care.”

For the Clinton School students who worked on the report, knowing that their research will improve the lives of youth in foster care was very motivating.

“People often hear negative statistics about foster care, but our research shows that some programs are having successful outcomes with foster youth,” Buffalo said. “I have no doubt that youth in Arkansas can also benefit from these programs.”

The report will be finalized and presented to the Department of Human Services executive board and key stakeholders in April.

Afolabi, Buffalo, Carey and Harris are first-year students in the Master of Public Service program at the Clinton School.  Theirs is one of ten projects completed this year by 36 Clinton School students across the state of Arkansas.

Four Clinton School students worked with Governor Mike Beebe’s “No Kid Hungry Campaign” to identify and bridge gaps in programs that feed hungry children across Arkansas.

“Hungry children have a tougher time learning than other students, which means that hunger threatens their ability to succeed in school,” Beebe said. “The campaign to feed our children and end childhood hunger is an investment in the future of Arkansas.”

In order to determine where children currently receive food on nights and weekends, the Clinton School team interviewed food banks and surveyed over 1,000 feeding programs. They collected basic information on these programs’ operations and impact, and produced a set of tools that will help the campaign connect with, learn from and support these efforts.

Many children are unsure where their next meal will come from when not in school. For this reason, the campaign is giving attention to a number of programs that feed children on nights and weekends, when their access to food may be limited.

These tools consist of a directory of all identified non-congregate programs, a set of complimentary maps produced in collaboration with Anthony Davis at the Arkansas Geographic Information Office and an analysis of survey results.

“The outcomes of the students’ work will be instrumental in carrying out the next phase of our efforts to end childhood hunger in Arkansas,” said Joyce Hardy, director of the campaign.

The Clinton School team consists of Jordan Aibel of Miami, Fla., Katie Longino of Lufkin, Texas, Dylan Perry of Memphis, Tenn., and Andrea Price of Monticello, Ark. The team presented the results of their efforts at the general campaign meeting on March 14.

The students completed the project as part of the Clinton School’s Practicum program, the first of three field service projects in the Master of Public Service degree program.

A team of Clinton School students recently presented Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (AACF) with a library of resources to increase public support and awareness of state-funded programs.

The Clinton School students interviewed key stakeholders associated with priority issue areas identified by Arkansas Advocates, including early childhood education, juvenile justice, out-of-school programs and children’s health. After collecting videos, photos and written stories from these stakeholders, the students organized these resources within secure accounts, easily accessible to Arkansas Advocates staff members.

The presentation included specific recommendations for how officials with Arkansas Advocates can best use these stories when connecting with young professionals, a demographic they hope to further engage. Recommendations for sustaining and expanding the project were also included.

The students completed the project as part of the Clinton School’s Practicum program, one of three for-credit public service projects in the Master of Public Service degree program.

“Over the past two semesters, we’ve been very impressed by the magnitude of support Arkansas Advocates provides to at-risk families,” said Yana-Janell Scott, Clinton School Practicum team member. “Their work has a profound effect on people’s daily lives across the state and this project has given us practical insight into what it means to be a public servant.”

The students collected a total of 109 videos, 96 photos and seven written stories from public service providers and recipients in the four core issue areas. The final video content contains 450 minutes of footage from 35 interviewees. The students traveled 760 miles to eight cities in order to obtain the material.

“We’re really impressed with the work these students have done,” said Brett Kincaid, outreach director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. “We started out with some pretty big ideas for what we ultimately wanted out of this project. To take such a huge task, focus in on some key issues and produce this level of work was not only really helpful to us but a major accomplishment in and of itself.”

This presentation marks the culmination of a yearlong project for Clinton School students Mitchell Adams of Morrilton, Ark., Rebecca Scissors of Ellicott City, Md., Yana-Janell Scott of Little Rock and Sydney Shearer of Nashville, Tenn.

The project is one of 10 completed by 36 Clinton School students across the state of Arkansas.