Fels makes an international impact

Although Fels Institute of Government Director Larry Sherman speaks excitedly about several projects being developed by his school, it is only casually that he mentions his fall trip to England to brief Prime Minister Tony Blair on a restorative justice project that he and his students have researched on Blair's behalf.

After Fels students complete work on a study that examines new methods of restorative criminal justice -- which include mediation between victims and offenders -- there will be "ripple effects all over the world," including a "big reform of the English justice system," Sherman said.

"No one in England could do what we do... we were the only ones who proposed what they wanted," he said."I don't think the University has ever had a grant from the British government before."

And the restorative justice program is just one way in which Fels is making a difference. Locally the school is measuring and proposing changes to current programs available to juveniles released from residential facilities, and trying to rehabilitate themselves into their communities.

The Fels Institute is aided by a recent million-dollar grant from the Court and Services Planning Group to develop the strategic planning of aftercare services for juvenile offenders.

Fels will work in an "intense partnership" with agencies that now provide aftercare services and the planning group to formulate new ways to help juveniles.

Currently, a single aftercare worker may be forced to handle up to 100 high-risk offenders alone. The system in place treats all of the offenders in a "one size fits all" system, according to Sherman.

It was one night several months ago when Sherman realized just how much Fels was needed, as he awoke to an attempted burglary at his home and witnessed a young boy fleeing the scene.

"I thought, 'Gosh, we've really got to get this project started,'" Sherman said, adding that the institute plans to focus on more serious crimes, including robbery, rape and murder.

Through statistical analysis, the Fels Institute will identify juveniles who are most likely to become repeat offenders once they are released.

More time will be spent focusing on these high-risk juveniles, and Fels students will calculate the "best practices that help kids turn their life around... learning to read, getting off drugs, getting a job," Sherman said.

"We're doing something that really matters," said Fels first-year student Allison McConomy, one of nine students working on the aftercare project.

To be able to "use Philadelphia as our lab," McConomy said, is one of the best parts about the program that allows students to "put the coursework in conversation with practice."

The aftercare project exists as a part of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, just one of the centers and programs under the wing of the Fels Institute.

However, Fels is a school quite unlike any of Penn's other graduate schools. Established in 1937 by Samuel Fels, the school offers a unique MGA degree to students, which combines a courseload of three classes per semester with 20 hours of intensive fieldwork.

The fieldwork can vary from work in the office of a senator or local non-profit organization to time spent developing a project like the aftercare system.

Sherman described the system of instruction at Fels as one similar to the "teaching hospital model" used at nursing schools, allowing every student to have "an intensive experience in upgrading government," he said.

"We treat the MGA students as interns -- they are treating the patient... which is government," he said.

McConomy reflected on the diverse student body, which includes a student who has worked on the unification of Korea, someone who taught elementary school in Compton, Ca., and a student who worked in the office of the prime minister of Turkey.

"I never expected this environment to foster such incredible learning," McConomy said.

Fels also designs performance measures for foster care programs locally and works to revitalize the city through their "block by block" program.

The goal of the program is to help build a city-wide community through an intensive focus on specific, individual street blocks.

The blocks come together by "fixing the street, clearing the drughouses... fixing their roofs or finding jobs for those who don't have jobs," Fels project manager Can Atacik said.

"We facilitate these things... we empower them," Atacik said.

The mission of the institute is "leadership for results," added Atacik, who is also a Fels graduate. The work that students do "gets you pumped up about leadership and puts your foot on the ground."

To Sherman, it is the leadership and dedication of every student in helping government and "inspiring people to achieve" that makes Fels so special.

"You go to Wharton to learn how to make money, you come to Fels to learn how to create public goods," he said. "Our bottom line is not cash."

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