Professional Skills

The MPA program assisted me in developing practical skills I can use in my career. Notably, the research methods and budgeting courses has each endowed me a strong set of skills that will allow to probe deeper in my analyses. Each class assisted in me in developing my data analysis skills and how to manage data through excel and SPSS. 

My research on three-strikes sentencing laws illustrates the techniques I developed during my research method courses. This research demonstrates my skills in research design, collection of data, and use of numerous statistical tests to answer a research question.

Course work in budgeting developed skills in understanding how government programs are financed, budgeted and operated. The course research project of devising a budget proposal reflects many of the skills and concepts I learned during the course.  My budget proposal for the Caltrain FY2009 Operations Budget incorporates these skills with detailed analyses and justification through examination of organizational values, service delivery priorities and through use of various analysis tools (see Appendix A and Appendix B for analyses).