UNH Today

Public policy advocacy encompasses a range of activities, in settings as varied as the streets of our local New Hampshire communities and the halls of the U.S. Congress. Fortunately for Sarah Nadeau '19 '20G, a graduate of the Master of Public Policy (MPP) program at the Carsey School of Public Policy, she’s worked in both environments.

"Through the Winant Fellowship, I completed a summer internship with the Central New Hampshire Bicycle Coalition, where I had the opportunity to dive into policy advocacy for local communities," Nadeau said. "Partnering with local community members and small businesses showed me the power of community organizing to deliver policy change."

Ski Time

Nadeau is used to traversing the streets (and snow paths) via muscle power. As a D-I athlete on the University of New Hampshire’s Nordic ski team, she spends part of the off-season training via roller skis on paved surfaces. The Hopkinton native is entering her last season of NCAA eligibility and has racked up an impressive list of achievements as a Wildcat, including being named to the 2019 National Collegiate All-Academic Ski Team.

This grassroots campaigning provided a nice juxtaposition to the work Nadeau did in the summer of 2017 as an intern in the Manchester, New Hamspire, office of Sen. Maggie Hassan, and in the summer of 2018, when she interned with the Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C. 

"With Sen. Hassan’s team, I was able to explore policy analysis and get a glimpse into national politics," she said. "And while interning at the U.S. Department of Commerce, I saw firsthand how state, federal and international economic policy intertwined. This experience offered me the opportunity to apply my undergraduate economics training and explore where a career a career in policy and politics could take me."

Nadeau, who graduated in 2019 from UNH with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics, credits a longtime passion for politics and policy advocacy as helping to steer her toward Carsey’s accelerated MPP program. That, and some inspiration from Reagan Baughman, associate professor of economics and public policy at UNH.

“We talked about how her own career in economics has overlapped with policy work and some of the research she’s been involved in,” Nadeau said. “And she showed me how a background in economics and public policy can easily work hand in hand.”

“The flexibility and adaptability of the Carsey School program has really allowed me to choose what I wanted to study,” Nadeau said. “Plus, added opportunities like the MPP Washington, D.C., colloquium trip give me the chance to learn how I can directly apply classroom training within a career."

Interested in learning more about the Carsey School's new $5,000 education award available to graduates of The Washington Center at UNH? Visit our The Washington Center Education Award webpage to learn more.