{"id":138,"date":"2009-10-26T16:13:11","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T21:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/?p=138"},"modified":"2014-09-23T08:35:58","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:35:58","slug":"students-scottish-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/students-scottish-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Help Shape Scottish Public Policy During Internship"},"content":{"rendered":"

OXFORD, Miss. – Two University of Mississippi students got a chance to
\ndo something extraordinary while studying abroad: shape public policy
\nin another country.
\n
<\/p>\n

\nVince Chamblee, a senior economics and public policy leadership major
\nfrom Fulton, and Megan Smith, a senior journalism and political science
\nmajor from Long Beach, studied for five weeks at the University of
\nEdinburgh in Scotland last spring before interning for 10 weeks with
\nScottish Parliament as part of the Ole Miss Study Abroad program. Both
\nstudents, who are members of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors
\nCollege, also completed extensive research projects: one on small
\nbusiness tax policy and the other on the economic viability of
\nalternative energy.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe national internships are highly
\ncompetitive and generally offered to no more than 20 students a
\nsemester, but Chamblee and Smith were two of only 15 accepted into the
\nprogram last spring. Almost every other student accepted represented a
\nuniversity in the northeastern U.S., including Johns Hopkins University
\nand the universities and Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, Smith said.\n<\/p>\n

\n“We were the only two from the South,” she said. “To get to hang
\nout with a bunch of people from the Northeast and hear their different
\nviews and the different ways they were raised was an interesting
\nexperience. I really liked the diversity of the group we had.”\n<\/p>\n

\n\"scottish-internsa.jpg\"<\/p>\n
\nUM honors students Vince Chamblee of Fulton and Megan Smith of Long Beach gained valuable experience as they helped shape public policy in Scotland during their internships with the Scottish Parliament. <\/b>UM photo by Ryan Whittington.\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\nAt the University of Edinburgh, Chamblee and Smith took three
\nclasses, which gave them a foundation in Scottish culture, history and
\npolitics, as well as government and politics in the United Kingdom.
\nThey received six hours of credit for the internship.\n<\/p>\n

\nAfter finishing their coursework, Chamblee and Smith began
\nworking with members of Scottish Parliament. Smith worked for Scottish
\nNational Party member Bob Doris, who represents Glasgow, and Chamblee
\nworked for Rob Gibson and Dave Thompson, Scottish National Party
\nrepresentatives for the Highlands and Islands.\n<\/p>\n

\n“Because Scottish Parliament is a lot smaller, you got to do
\nlegitimate jobs,” Smith said. “I actually helped Doris write some of
\nhis speeches, wrote a couple of press releases for him and helped do a
\nlot of research for him on bills he was proposing or working on. As
\ntime progressed and I built a relationship with him, he allowed me to
\ndo more.”\n<\/p>\n

\nChamblee enjoyed similar freedoms during his internship.\n<\/p>\n

\n“The first thing I did when I came to the office was a political brief
\nfor a debate the next week with the Scottish Housing Association and
\nthe government provision of housing versus the private sector’s
\nprovisional policy,” Chamblee said. “I had to provide a brief for him
\non the issues that would be covered in that discussion. There was an
\nelement of personal accountability, because as I listened to him
\ndebate, I knew I was responsible for the information he knew. If he
\ndidn’t field a question very well, I felt personally responsible.”\n<\/p>\n

\nChamblee said he was surprised by the degree of involvement he was given in making important decisions for Scottish Parliament.\n<\/p>\n

\n“We were allowed to communicate the ideas of a high member of
\nParliament to newspapers across Scotland. It was pretty important, what
\nwe wrote,” he said. “It was a pretty heavy responsibility. Not only did
\nyou communicate the story, you actually composed the quotes on behalf
\nof the Parliament member.”\n<\/p>\n

\nChamblee’s final project involved the technical and economic
\nviability for a conversion to wind energy as a primary source of energy
\nin Scotland, while Smith’s involved investigating the effects of
\ntaxation on small businesses throughout the country.\n<\/p>\n

\nChamblee’s project examined technical aspects and physics of
\nwind energy, as well as the economic implications for a large-scale
\nconversion to wind energy.\n<\/p>\n

\n“The north of Scotland has sustained winds of 50 miles per hour
\nin places, and this is constant,” Chamblee said. “Here is this huge
\nresource, and it’s being exploited but on a limited basis. Scottish
\ngovernment issued a campaign in 2008 for renewable energy to have 80
\npercent of Scotland run by renewable energy by 2050. My argument was to
\nshow the potential for energy in the area.”\n<\/p>\n

\nSmith’s project involved interacting with small business owners, her favorite part of her experience in Scotland.\n<\/p>\n

\n“I actually traveled around Doris’ constituency in Glasgow,” she said.
\n“A colleague and I walked door to door and knocked on small business
\noffices and asked owners about relevant policies – if they liked them,
\nif they were effective, etc. It was really neat because you got to meet
\nthe local people, and you got to hear them voice how government was
\naffecting them. A lot of towns in Scotland are like those here in the
\nSouth. They’re pretty small, and everyone knows everyone.”\n<\/p>\n

\nChamblee and Smith agreed that their experiences were culturally enlightening.\n<\/p>\n

\n“From the very beginning, I was in awe that I was in the halls
\nof Scottish Parliament,” Chamblee said. “That’s something I couldn’t
\nhave imagined two-and-a-half years ago.”\n<\/p>\n

\nSmith enjoyed getting to know some of the people in Scotland.\n<\/p>\n

\n“It was cool to see the way they think because they are such a
\nsocialist country,” she said. “They have universal health care already.
\nFor us not to have universal health care, which is such a hot topic
\nhere, is beyond them. They just don’t understand it at all. The
\ndifferent perspective was interesting to hear and consider.”\n<\/p>\n

\nFor more information, contact Study Abroad Adviser Maury Breazeale at 662-915-1508 or maury@olemiss.edu<\/a>, or visit http:\/\/www.outreach.olemiss.<\/wbr>edu\/study?abroad\/programs\/<\/wbr>scotland?parliament-internship<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OXFORD, Miss. – Two University of Mississippi students got a chance to do something extraordinary while studying abroad: shape public policy in another country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nStudents Help Shape Scottish Public Policy During Internship - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/students-scottish-policy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Students Help Shape Scottish Public Policy During Internship - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OXFORD, Miss. – Two University of Mississippi students got a chance to do something extraordinary while studying abroad: shape public policy in another country.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/students-scottish-policy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T13:35:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/wp-content\/uploads\/stories\/scottish-internsa.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/\",\"name\":\"Ole Miss News\",\"description\":\"The official source for University of Mississippi news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/students-scottish-policy\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/ezing.me\/transfer\/wp-content\/uploads\/stories\/scottish-internsa.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/students-scottish-policy\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/students-scottish-policy\/\",\"name\":\"Students Help Shape Scottish Public Policy During Internship - 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