LBJ School student team named a regional winner of the 2019 NASPAA-Batten Student simulation competition

Share this content

Published:
March 25, 2019

LBJ Professor Francie Ostrower presents research at the 2018 ARNOVA Conference in Austin Nov. 15-17.

#TeamLBJ at the 2019 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition. Left to right: Professor Ruth Wasem,
who served as site leader; MPAff student Matt Smith; MPAff student Michelle Rueda; MPAff student Cara Pavlak;
MPAff student Megan Marie Maldonado; MPGPS student Abby Attia; Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, LBJ's director of
civic engagement and lecturer, who served as technical leader. (Photo by Callie Richmond)

 

A team of seven LBJ School of Public Affairs students was named regional winner of the 2019 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition on Feb. 23. The LBJ School was one of 11 global sites to host the competition, a partnership between the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) and the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

This year's event, "Host Nations: A Refugee Simulation" was the largest-ever student simulation competition in higher education; 585 graduate students from 137 universities around the world worked in teams to manage a theoretical migrant influx from a variety of policy perspectives. Participants competed at 11 global host sites from Dhaka and Cairo to Mexico City and San Francisco.

#TeamLBJ:

  • Abby Attia
  • Lara Eid
  • Megan Marie Maldonado
  • Carolina Miranda
  • Cara Pavlak
  • Michelle Rueda
  • Matt Smith

"Our winning LBJ team has made us extremely proud, and brought to this competition a rich tool kit of strategic thinking and immigration policy expertise," said LBJ School Dean Angela Evans. "Thank you all and thank you to our site leader, Ruth Wasem and technical leader, Victoria DeFrancesco Soto.

With more human beings on the move than ever before in history, the topic of global migration was chosen as particularly relevant. The simulation, developed by experts at the University of Virginia's Center for Leadership Simulation and Gaming (CLSG) and backed by extensive real-world data, placed students in charge of four fictitious countries as their region experienced a migrant influx. Each student team represented one country’s government, with each member holding a high-ranking position such as prime minster or minister of labor. As the teams navigated difficult policy decisions and their potential outcomes, the game challenged participants to weigh human rights, integration, and GDP growth against budget restrictions and political resistance. Participants were given the opportunity to see which policies produced outcomes beneficial to both their virtual citizens and the arriving migrants.

"Our winning LBJ team has made us extremely proud, and brought to this competition a rich tool kit of strategic thinking and immigration policy expertise." —LBJ School Dean Angela Evans

"This is the only global simulation in public policy education I know of that brings grad students together from all different countries to address a multifaceted policy issue and learn from each other," said NASPAA Executive Director Laurel McFarland. "Our hope is they will graduate and go out into the real world with a heightened understanding of forced migration and the complexities and tradeoffs in the surrounding policy decisions as well as a desire to contribute wherever they might end up working."

116 participating teams were evaluated on simulation scores, negotiation skills and policy presentations. Regional site judges selected 13 regional winning teams, and a panel of prominent judges identified the global winners — the first, second, and third place teams. The full list of regional and global winners are on the NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition website.

"We built our most complex and immersive simulation to date around the timely and sensitive issue of forced migration," said CLSG Director Noah Myung. "Migration is a global issue, so we hoped to get participants to think of our world as one connected system and avoid thinking of policymaking in a vacuum. While teams were competing against each other, success for any one team required coordination with the others."

In the coming months, the CLSG will develop a classroom version of the simulation which will be available free of charge for the next three years. NASPAA will distribute the free classroom version to its 300 member schools.

 

About the LBJ School
The LBJ School, one of the nation's top public affairs schools, has a unique legacy of tackling the most complex policy problems of our day by creating innovative approaches that make a difference, not only within the walls of academia but also in the public and social dialogue of the world. Advancing scholarship and contributing viable solutions to society is the LBJ School's legacy and its path forward. More than 4,300 graduates are the living legacy of President Johnson's bold and fearless action. For more, visit lbj.utexas.edu.

About NASPAA
The Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration or NASPAA is the global standard in public service education. It is the membership organization of graduate education programs in public policy, public affairs, public administration, and public & nonprofit management. Its over 300 members - located across the U.S. and in 24 countries around the globe - award MPA, MPP, MPAff, and similar degrees. NASPAA is the recognized global accreditor of master’s degree programs in these fields.

About the CLSG:
The University of Virginia’s Center for Leadership Simulation and Gaming at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy prepares students for public life by allowing them to test real-world solutions in a virtual environment. The CLSG designs, develops, and implements cutting edge simulations and experiments to advance education in leadership and public policy; conducts rigorous leadership and public policy research using simulations and experiments; and creates a community of scholarship where faculty, researchers and students are supported in their scholarly efforts related to the methodology of simulations and experiments.

 

LBJ media contacts:
Susan Binford, susan.binford@austin.utexas.edu
Victoria Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu

NASPAA media contact:
Supriya Golas, golas@naspaa.org

The University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy media contact:
Erin Tor, erin.tor@virginia.edu