After three years of teaching English to sixth graders in Santiago, Chile, Jillian Bernas had a revelation.
“In my classes, I was influencing 200 children a year, but I wanted to see if I could influence education at a different level,” said Bernas, AM’11, a native Chicagoan who has lived in Santiago for almost five years.
Bernas talked with people in her field of interest and realized they all had public policy degrees. Hoping to pursue her research in Santiago but also interested in an American-based degree program, she was torn between studying in Chile or the United States. She found a perfect solution with the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy Studies Cooperative Program with the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Chile. She is currently finishing her University of Chile Master’s in Public Policy thesis.
“What most attracted me to the cooperative program was that you can go to the University of Chicago and take great classes about Latin America and its politics, and then you can go to Chile and be taught by the former minister of transportation or someone who works in Latin American government, which gives you great insight,” Bernas said.
Through the cooperative program, which is now in its sixth year, students who successfully complete the first year of the MPP program at either school can apply to attend their second year at the other school and earn a master’s degree from both institutions. The program also has a popular alternative that sends Chicago Harris faculty to teach University of Chile MMP students in a non-degree, certificate program in public policy.
Dean renews effective program
Chicago Harris Dean Colm O’Muicheartaigh, who this fall signed an agreement to extend the cooperative program for another five years, called it “a strong example of effective academic exchange.”
To date, 10 students have completed the dual masters degree program and almost 200 students from the University of Chile have undertaken the certificate program in public policy courses, according to Andres Gomez-Lobo, Associate Professor of Economics and academic director of the MPP program for the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Chile.
“We were interested in establishing a cooperative agreement with a school that was focused on the rigorous analysis of public policies,” said Gomez-Lobo. “As such, the academic focus of the Harris School of Public Policy Studies and its extraordinary prestige were unbeatable.”
Francisca Penna and Pablo Celhay, both from Santiago, were two of the first students to take advantage of the dual degree program, earning their master’s in 2007.
Penna, who now works at the Chilean Ministry of the Presidency on inter-ministerial coordination, cited UChicago’s world-class teaching and interdisciplinary education as her reasons for joining the program.
“Living in Chicago, which is a wonderful city, meeting students from all around the world, and living abroad in a developed country, were all great experiences,” said Penna.
Celhay returned to Santiago after completing his Chicago Harris year. He helped build a center for survey methodology at the Alberto Hurtado University, joined their economics department, and consulted for the World Bank, but always knew he would return to Chicago.
“From the time I left here in 2007, I knew I wanted to come back and do my PhD,” said Celhay, who started his doctoral program at Chicago Harris this fall.
Students span the Americas
Bernas praised the Faculty of Economics and Business’ caliber of professors, its openness to various schools of thought and the quality of its students.
“It is a program that brings together not only people from different specialties, but also people from all over the Americas,” she said. “You have the opportunity to learn about many different governments and make professional contacts with classmates from many different countries.”
The Faculty of Economics and Business first connected with Chicago Harris through its work with Nobel laureate James Heckman, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, the College and the Harris School. He has been an international member of the microdata center at the University of Chile since its founding in 2000.
The microdata center, according to Gomez-Lobo, is one of the most important social and economic statistics research centers in Latin America, which focuses on the empirical analysis of social datasets, including the early childhood development surveys Heckman has helped to create.
Chicago Harris also has cooperative programs with Tel Aviv University in Israel and Yansei University Graduate School of International Studies in Seoul, Korea.
—Prof. Jacqueline Stewart