Converse Alumna Wows Them in Grad School and in Washington

Valerie Brock ’03 is on a roll. After double majoring in politics and music at Converse, she has earned her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Georgia, a program ranked third in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, earned a coveted Presidential Management Fellowship, been named Student of the Year for the Master of Public Administration program at UGA, and was presented with the college’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award.

Landing the Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) is an impressive accomplishment. President Carter used Executive Order to establish the program in 1977 to attract to the Federal Service outstanding individuals from a wide variety of academic disciplines who are interested in and committed to a career in the federal government. Of the 3,200 applicants this year, only 630 made it through the thorough and arduous process-and Valerie was one of them.

On April 5, Valerie accepted a position with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. “I will be working in Atlanta with CDC’s Procurement and Grants Office in their International Branch,” said Valerie, a native of Knoxville, TN. “I will mainly work with contracts and grants relating to President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. I will also be provided with international travel opportunities.” She is scheduled to travel to Zambia in Africa where she will live in the capital city of Lusaka and work in the US embassy.

During her time at UGA, Valerie has served as a teaching assistant for UGA’s Introduction to American Government course. “A teaching assistant leads individual discussion groups of about 25-30 students,” she said. “Since lectures at UGA are so huge, it is difficult for professors to have one-on-one time with students, so teaching assistants get to know students on a personal basis. Teaching assistants also do all the grading!”

A gifted teacher in her own right, Valerie was one of only two masters-level teaching assistants from UGA’s political science program to be recognized with the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. The University-wide award recognizes excellence in teaching and reflects superior teaching skills demonstrated over at least two semesters.