UM Students Help Shape Scottish Public Policy

October 13, 2009

Two University of Mississippi students got the chance to do something out of the ordinary while studying abroad – shape public policy in another country.

Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College students Vince Chamblee, a senior economics and public policy leadership major from Fulton, Miss., and Megan Smith, a senior journalism and political science major from Long Beach, studied for five weeks at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland this past spring before interning for 10 weeks with Scottish Parliament as part of the University’s Study Abroad program. Both students also completed extensive research projects as contributions to their Scottish Parliament Members’ campaigns.

Chamblee and Smith said the Edinburgh internship opportunity was brought to their attention by Ole Miss Study Abroad Advisor Maury Breazeale.

“I had spent the summer before this internship at the London School of Economics, and Maury came to me that fall and told me I ought to look into this opportunity,” Chamblee said. “I wasn’t really familiar with the system of government in Scotland in the wider context of the United Kingdom’s government, so I did some research into it and thought it was interesting.”

Breazeale also pointed Smith to the program.

“I had originally really wanted to study abroad in the UK, and Maury knew my double major was in political science and journalism,” Smith said. “My dad is 100 percent Irish so I initially wanted to go to Ireland, but then I found out about this internship in Scotland and thought it would be good for my majors. Growing up, I always had a fascination with the UK and always wanted to go there.”

Breazeale said he knew Chamblee and Smith would be ideal choices to represent the University.

“I knew both students already and had advised both of them,” he said. “The University of Edinburgh is ranked in the top 25 universities in the world. When I learned about the Scottish Parliament internship, I reached out to both of these people and encouraged them to apply. They were very open to the idea and we were very excited about it. I was confident that they would both be chosen because they are both great students who are very bright and impressive and both have great personalities for working in politics.”

Enrollment in the program is highly competitive, according to Breazeale.

“You have to be an excellent student with a good resume and academic record to study at University of Edinburgh. Every one selected is assigned to a specific member of Scottish Parliament with whom they work for 10 weeks,” he said. ”Each student is doing real work with a politician and is expected to make a significant contribution. Each is doing work that is helping to shape public policy in Scotland.»

The application process required the students to submit transcripts, two personal statements, and at least one letter of academic recommendation. Internships are usually offered to no more than 20 students a semester, but Chamblee and Smith were two of only 15 accepted into the program last spring. According to Smith, almost every other student accepted represented a university in the northeastern region of the US, including John Hopkins University and the Universities and Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

“It was quite interesting for me and Vince. We were the only two from the South. To get to hang out with a bunch of people from the Northeast and hear their different views and the different ways they were raised was an interesting experience,” Smith said. “I really liked the diversity of the group we had.”

The three classes Chamblee and Smith took gave them a foundation in Scottish culture, history and politics as well as government and politics in the United Kingdom. They also received six hours of credit for the internship.

After finishing this coursework, Chamblee and Smith began working with members of Scottish Parliament. Smith worked for Scottish National Party member Bob Doris, who represents Glasgow, while Chamblee worked for Rob Gibson and Dave Thompson, Scottish National Party representatives for the Highlands and Islands.

“Because Scottish Parliament is a lot smaller, you got to do legitimate jobs,” Smith said. “I actually helped Doris write some of his speeches, wrote a couple of press releases for him and helped do a lot of research for him on bills he was proposing or working on. As time progressed and I built a relationship with him, he allowed me to do more. You actually got to interact with your member of Scottish Parliament a lot.”

Chamblee agrees that the list of responsibilities grew as the internship progressed.

“The first thing I did when I came to the office was a political brief for a debate the next week with the Scottish Housing Association and the government provision of housing versus the private sector’s provisional policy. The member of Parliament with whom I worked was a speaker there. I had to provide a brief for him on the issues that would be covered in that discussion,” Chamblee said. “There was an element of personal accountability because as I’m listened to him debate, I knew I was responsible for the information he knew. If he didn’t field a question very well, I felt personally responsible.”

Chamblee also said he was surprised by the degree of involvement he was given in making important decisions for Scottish Parliament.

“We were allowed to communicate the ideas of a high member of Parliament to newspapers across Scotland. It was pretty important, what we wrote,” Chamblee said. “It was a pretty heavy responsibility. Not only did you communicate the story, you actually composed the quotes on behalf of the Parliament member.”

Chamblee’s final project for the Scottish Parliament involved the technical and economic viability for a conversion to wind energy as a primary source of energy in Scotland while Smith’s involved investigating the effects of taxation on small businesses throughout the country.

Chamblee said his project took a look at the technical aspects and physics of wind energy as well as the economic implications for a large-scale conversion to wind energy.

“The north of Scotland has sustained winds of 50 mph in places and this is constant. Here is this huge resource, and it’s being exploited but on a limited basis,” he said. “Scottish government issued a campaign in 2008 for renewable energy to have 80 percent of Scotland run by renewable energy by 2050. My argument was to show the potential for energy in the area.”

Smith’s project involved interacting with small business owners, her favorite part of her experience in Scotland.

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

Smith’s research concluded that limited taxing on small businesses prevented economic instability.

“I found that the turnover rate among small businesses in their first three years was quite high. The MSP was trying to implement a new policy that would help small businesses, especially because small towns had so many of the small businesses,” she said. “My findings concluded that the new MSP policy of keeping businesses that made only so much money from being taxed and providing tax discounts to other small businesses was effective in ensuring the survival of those businesses.”

Chamblee and Smith agreed that the experience was culturally enlightening.

“From the very beginning, I was in awe that I was in the halls of Scottish Parliament. That’s something I couldn’t have imagined two and a half years ago,” Chamblee said.

Smith agreed.

“I got to know some Scottish people. It was cool to see the way they think because they are such a socialist country,” Smith said. “They have universal health care already. For us not to have universal health care, which is such a hot topic here, is beyond them. They just don’t understand it at all. The different perspective was interesting to hear and consider.”

Breazeale said he knew immediately who the right people were for the opportunity and is glad they were able to participate.

“When they were selected, I knew I had chosen two great ambassadors of UM and Mississippi,” he said.

More information about the program is available at www.outreach.olemiss.edu/study_abroad/programs/scotland_parliament-internship, or contact Maury Breazeale at (662) 915-1508 or maury@olemiss.edu.

Nathan Gregory

This is a follow up to a story about their winning the scholarships dated 12/22/08. Its title was “Honors Students Receive Competitive Internship with Scottish Parliament.” LINK: http://news.olemiss.edu/index.php/Ole-Miss-News/Proofs/honors_scotland.html Photo included in that article.