Reflections of a Graduate Assistant

For the past eight months, I have been a graduate assistant (GA) with The Center for Community Solutions (Community Solutions). Being a graduate assistant means that I worked at Community Solutions 20-hours a week while also going to school to get my Master’s in Public Administration (MPA) at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University. If there is one thing I learned from this experience, it’s that caffeine is my friend. If there are two things I learned, they are the benefits of caffeine, and that health policy covers a wide range of topics and there is a lot I don’t know about pretty much all of them. Despite that, I have enjoyed researching and writing about these topics. In my time at Community Solutions, I researched and wrote about a number of subjects, ranging from the benefits of syringe exchanges, to the potential advantages of filing for bankruptcy, to the disproportionate impact driver’s license suspensions have on low-income Ohioans. All of these are topics I knew little about before arriving at Community Solutions. My colleagues at Community Solutions have been fantastic. I have had the honor of working with several kind, passionate and knowledgeable people in my time here, and I have learned so much from them.

In my time at Community Solutions, I researched and wrote about a number of subjects, ranging from the benefits of syringe exchanges, to the potential advantages of filing for bankruptcy, to the disproportionate impact driver’s license suspensions have on low-income Ohioans.

Full disclosure, I am not a storyteller. I would be much more comfortable just summarizing some of the research I have done with Community Solutions. However, I have linked several of my papers throughout this post, so that seems a little redundant.

Instead, I’m going to attempt to talk about why I’m here, what I’ve done and what I’ve learned that I can bring with me as I move on to the next stage of my life. If that sounds interesting, please continue reading. Additionally, all of my other papers and blog posts, as well as those of all of my colleagues, are available on Community Solutions’ website. I recommend you check it out.

I was drawn to Community Solutions because of its commitment to research and promotion of informed, evidence-based decision-making.

As an undergrad, I double majored in mathematics and history. If you’re confused by this combination, you wouldn’t be the first. Basically, it means that I enjoy playing with numbers but am also interested in people, the social sciences, and doing qualitative research and writing. It also means that I had no idea what I wanted to do after graduation. Coming out of undergrad, I essentially filled out an application for any job I came across that I appeared to be qualified for. I ended up working for a software company and, after a year there, I had ruled out information technology and customer service as parts of my long-term career goals and decided to look for a new direction. This time around, I took more care to apply to jobs that piqued my interest. Based on the job applications I filled out at that point, I realized that my interests seemed to lie in using my research skills to help people by studying effective policy. I also noticed that public administration was an educational background that was recommended for many of these positions. So, I applied to graduate programs and ultimately chose to attend the John Glenn College to get my degree.

I was drawn to Community Solutions because of its commitment to research and promotion of informed, evidence-based decision-making.

Part of what attracted me to the John Glenn College was the fact that the college offered me a graduate assistantship for my second year (it’s a two-year program). As someone with limited practical experience in the field, that seemed like a great opportunity to get an education while also gaining valuable experience in the policy sphere. I was drawn to Community Solutions because of its commitment to research and promotion of informed, evidence-based decision-making. I was thus excited to learn Community Solutions had selected me to be their GA for the 2018-2019 school year.

As I have mentioned throughout, I had little background in policy before arriving at Community Solutions. I had considerable research skills, but the research I did in college looked primarily at Indian removal and slave revolts in the 18th century. These are interesting and important topics, but they don’t tend to come up when discussing 21st century health policy. Just how much there was to learn became clear on my first day. I was given a number of items to read through, one of which was the book $2 a Day by H. Luke Shaefer and Kathryn Edin. This book is about people living in the United States who earn an average of $2 per day per person in their household. It is a level of poverty that I was not aware existed in the United States. At the time the book was published in 2016, around 1.5 million households lived at or below this level of extreme poverty.

Before being asked to do this, I had never heard of syringe exchanges, or syringe services programs as they are more formally known.

The new information did not stop there. About a week after I started, I was given my first assignment. I was asked to work on updating a paper Community Solutions had released in early 2016 summarizing syringe exchanges in Ohio. I wrote a blog post on that process and also released the full updated report in March outlining the ten programs developed between March 2016 and March 2019.  Before being asked to do this, I had never heard of syringe exchanges, or syringe services programs as they are more formally known. Eight months later, after a combination of research and interviews, I know the topic so well that I was able to adapt the research I did for Community Solutions into the capstone paper I submitted as part of my graduation requirements from the John Glenn College.

I did learn that research and writing are still interesting when the problems and events I wrote about occurred in the 21st century, rather than the 18th

Another project I was asked to work on early in my tenure at Community Solutions was some research for Cleveland’s Legal Aid on the effects of filing for bankruptcy. This was a little more familiar to me, as I at least knew of the concept of bankruptcy. Additionally, the research methods involved were not outside the realm of what I had done throughout my academic career. While it was not a completely new experience, I did learn that research and writing are still interesting when the problems and events I wrote about occurred in the 21st century, rather than the 18th. This supported my initial feeling that public administration is a field I will be interested in entering for my future career. Additionally, I learned there is an argument to be made that filing for bankruptcy is potentially beneficial to not just the fiscal health of those who have reached a certain level of financial hardship, but to their physical and mental health as well.

Outside of syringe exchanges, the area where I did the most research for Community Solutions is transportation.

Outside of syringe exchanges, the area where I did the most research for Community Solutions is transportation. The research resulted in multiple pieces, from a blog post I wrote on how driver’s license suspensions disproportionately impact poor Ohioans to several blog posts I co-authored with Policy Associate Will Tarter Jr. on the transportation budget that was signed by Governor Mike DeWine in early April. Before I received these assignments, it had not occurred to me just how large an impact on a person’s health lacking transportation might have. When I got my driver’s license at 16, my dad gave me his old car and I’ve had a vehicle that I could legally drive pretty much ever since.[1] However, for someone whose license has been suspended or who cannot afford a car, especially in a state like Ohio that has one of the lowest per-capita state investments in public transportation, a lack of transportation can affect an individual’s ability to hold down a job or access necessary health care services.

Lack of insurance is the leading cause of license suspension in Ohio.

One of the items I mentioned in my piece on driver’s license suspensions was the Financial Responsibility Random Verification Program. This is a program that randomly sends letters to 5,400 Ohioans each week asking for proof of vehicle insurance. Failure to provide proof will result in a driver’s license suspension. Lack of insurance is the leading cause of license suspension in Ohio. This program was eliminated, effective July 1, 2019, by the most recent Ohio transportation budget. On the one hand, there are several other organizations that have put far more work into reducing driver’s license suspensions than I have. Still, a program that I wrote about, a program that I showed has a demonstrably negative effect on poor Ohioans, has been eliminated. That’s a really nice feeling.

Storytelling may not be my forte, but policy research seems to be.

I’ve left out several things, but I’m trying to keep this to a reasonable length. Storytelling may not be my forte, but policy research seems to be. I’ve enjoyed the opportunities I’ve had at Community Solutions to research and write about topics that have an impact on a considerable portion of the population. I’d argue that the history I researched as an undergraduate also has a real impact on a considerable portion of the population, but I’ve met plenty of people who disagree and this isn’t the place for that debate. Anyway, I decided to get my Masters in Public Administration so that I could learn to use my research skills to analyze policies and help people. My time at Community Solutions has given me the opportunity to do just that, and I have enjoyed those experiences. While my graduate assistantship, and my time at the John Glenn College, is coming to a close, I am proud of the work I have done with Community Solutions and I hope to be able to apply the skills I learned here to similar projects in the next chapter of my life.

[1] The only exception was my first two years of college, when I didn’t have a car with me on campus. However, since I had a meal plan, a work-study job, and available medical care on campus, my access to necessary services was not significantly limited.