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Christopher Pierce, a Los Angeles native, holds a strong passion for advancing a career in public service. At Roger Williams, he's getting the education - both inside and outside the classroom - he needs to be a future leader in the local and national community.

A Master's degree in Public Administration opens doors for future leaders, says Pierce who hopes to hold public office one day. “The course load within the program is setting me up for a lot of different opportunities if I choose to go down those paths.”

For example, in a grant writing course he evaluated a local grant program and then put together a proposal meeting all the requirements to present to his class and professor as if he were the funder. In another assignment in his public policy course, Pierce did extensive research and analyzation on local and national policies and then presented them to his class as if they were local stakeholders. Both projects mirrored tasks he could encounter as a professional to affect change real communities.

Outside the classroom, Pierce was recently appointed student representative to the national board of the American Society for Public Administration, through his connection with Professor Michael Hall, the Rhode Island chapter president and director of the MPA program at 91��������. He has also interned at the Rhode Island Department of Education, where he served on two planning teams to further education initiatives in the state. Pierce says his work outside the class is helping him put the skills he's learning inside the class to good use before he's even graduated.

When he does graduate, Pierce feels that with the combination of his coursework and field work he'll have the skills and experience necessary to "shake things up" in the current system.