OXFORD, Miss. – Two University of Mississippi students got a chance to
do something extraordinary while studying abroad: shape public policy
in another country.
Vince Chamblee, a senior economics and public policy leadership major
from Fulton, and Megan Smith, a senior journalism and political science
major from Long Beach, studied for five weeks at the University of
Edinburgh in Scotland last spring before interning for 10 weeks with
Scottish Parliament as part of the Ole Miss Study Abroad program. Both
students, who are members of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors
College, also completed extensive research projects: one on small
business tax policy and the other on the economic viability of
alternative energy.
The national internships are highly
competitive and generally offered to no more than 20 students a
semester, but Chamblee and Smith were two of only 15 accepted into the
program last spring. Almost every other student accepted represented a
university in the northeastern U.S., including Johns Hopkins University
and the universities and Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, Smith said.
“We were the only two from the South,” she said. “To get to hang
out with a bunch of people from the Northeast and hear their different
views and the different ways they were raised was an interesting
experience. I really liked the diversity of the group we had.”
At the University of Edinburgh, Chamblee and Smith took three
classes, which gave them a foundation in Scottish culture, history and
politics, as well as government and politics in the United Kingdom.
They received six hours of credit for the internship.
After finishing their coursework, Chamblee and Smith began
working with members of Scottish Parliament. Smith worked for Scottish
National Party member Bob Doris, who represents Glasgow, and Chamblee
worked for Rob Gibson and Dave Thompson, Scottish National Party
representatives for the Highlands and Islands.
“Because Scottish Parliament is a lot smaller, you got to do
legitimate jobs,” Smith said. “I actually helped Doris write some of
his speeches, wrote a couple of press releases for him and helped do a
lot of research for him on bills he was proposing or working on. As
time progressed and I built a relationship with him, he allowed me to
do more.”
Chamblee enjoyed similar freedoms during his internship.
“The first thing I did when I came to the office was a political brief
for a debate the next week with the Scottish Housing Association and
the government provision of housing versus the private sector’s
provisional policy,” Chamblee said. “I had to provide a brief for him
on the issues that would be covered in that discussion. There was an
element of personal accountability, because as I listened to him
debate, I knew I was responsible for the information he knew. If he
didn’t field a question very well, I felt personally responsible.”
Chamblee said he was surprised by the degree of involvement he was given in making important decisions for Scottish Parliament.
“We were allowed to communicate the ideas of a high member of
Parliament to newspapers across Scotland. It was pretty important, what
we wrote,” he said. “It was a pretty heavy responsibility. Not only did
you communicate the story, you actually composed the quotes on behalf
of the Parliament member.”
Chamblee’s final project involved the technical and economic
viability for a conversion to wind energy as a primary source of energy
in Scotland, while Smith’s involved investigating the effects of
taxation on small businesses throughout the country.
Chamblee’s project examined technical aspects and physics of
wind energy, as well as the economic implications for a large-scale
conversion to wind energy.
“The north of Scotland has sustained winds of 50 miles per hour
in places, and this is constant,” Chamblee said. “Here is this huge
resource, and it’s being exploited but on a limited basis. Scottish
government issued a campaign in 2008 for renewable energy to have 80
percent of Scotland run by renewable energy by 2050. My argument was to
show the potential for energy in the area.”
Smith’s project involved interacting with small business owners, her favorite part of her experience in Scotland.
“I actually traveled around Doris’ constituency in Glasgow,” she said.
“A colleague and I walked door to door and knocked on small business
offices and asked owners about relevant policies – if they liked them,
if they were effective, etc. It was really neat because you got to meet
the local people, and you got to hear them voice how government was
affecting them. A lot of towns in Scotland are like those here in the
South. They’re pretty small, and everyone knows everyone.”
Chamblee and Smith agreed that their experiences were culturally enlightening.
“From the very beginning, I was in awe that I was in the halls
of Scottish Parliament,” Chamblee said. “That’s something I couldn’t
have imagined two-and-a-half years ago.”
Smith enjoyed getting to know some of the people in Scotland.
“It was cool to see the way they think because they are such a
socialist country,” she said. “They have universal health care already.
For us not to have universal health care, which is such a hot topic
here, is beyond them. They just don’t understand it at all. The
different perspective was interesting to hear and consider.”
For more information, contact Study Abroad Adviser Maury Breazeale at 662-915-1508 or maury@olemiss.edu, or visit http://www.outreach.olemiss.