Our Goal: Developing Knowledgeable Citizens and Professionals
Dr. Ed Lorenz, professor of political science
The Political Science Program at Alma College is designed to help students become more effective citizens and professionals, and learn the answers to these questions:
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How do government and politics operate both within the United States and in foreign countries?
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How do nations and people interact in the international arena? What consequences result from these activities?
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How can we use knowledge to promote our human and social values through the political process?
Courses in comparative politics broaden our political knowledge by the examination and comparison of the political systems in other countries. International relations courses focus on the problems and conflicts in international politics and the ways by which they can be resolved or minimized.
Courses in American politics offer both an introductory and an in-depth understanding of American political institutions and processes, public management, policy making and policy analysis, and public law. Political theory relates politics to ethical and normative considerations, human values, and means-end problems.
Great Things about the Political Science Department
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We help students find internships. Alma students have been placed with city managers, prosecuting attorneys, the offices of the state governor and lieutenant governor, political candidates and in Washington, D.C. Students have interned for the United States' State Department in Washington, D.C., Namibia, Nigeria, Spain and for the United Nations.
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Alma’s Washington Semester Program through a cooperative arrangement with American University provides research experiences and contact with officials in the public and private sectors.
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Alma students have the opportunity to experience political science through a variety of spring term courses. Faculty have taken students to the United States-Mexico border to discuss border relations, to Scotland to discuss Scottish revolutions in the context of literature and to various presidential libraries.
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The World Capitals Program provides studies in London, Bonn and Rome.
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Alma’s Public Affairs Institute offers courses that help students consider issues, policies and decisions that affect the public interest with a focus on interactions between the private sector and government in policy making.
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Graduates completing Alma’s Political Science Program are pursuing careers in government, law, business, teaching, journalism, public administration and public relations and with non-profit organizations.
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Students also have a variety of options for graduate school. Alma graduates have gone on to top law schools such as Yale, Harvard and New York University, as well as pursued graduate degrees in political science at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Cambridge and The Johns Hopkins University.
Model United Nations
Alma’s Model United Nations program provides students with an opportunity to explore pressing international issues as they prepare to compete at regional and national conferences.
Alma has received a top award at the world’s largest and most prestigious collegiate Model UN conference 11 of the last 12 years (1995 through 2006).
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