The Patman Center is celebrating our one-year anniversary this November. While it may have only been a year since our founding, we have been busy! In the past year, The Patman Center has served 93 students, hosted 44 events and 49 speakers, and received 1,836 event registrations. Additionally, The Patman Center has given $70,000 in student scholarships for experiential learning opportunities.
To celebrate, we hosted our inaugural Leadership Symposium—an evening of fellowship for our Patman scholars, students and past speakers. The evening opened with a networking reception and featured a bipartisan keynote conversation with former U.S. Representative Mimi Walters (R-California) and former Ambassador Ron Kirk (D).
At the networking reception, students had the ability to reconnect with former Patman speakers and meet members of The Patman Center’s advisory committee. Patman students (students who have taken classes this year with Evan Smith, Emily Bhandari, or Becca North), the 2024 Patman Scholars, and our research award recipients met Jim Derrick, husband of Ambassador Patman and co-founder of The Patman Center. It was their generous gift that made all of these opportunities possible.
Patman scholars Christy Beauchemin and Leland Murphy spoke to attendees about the impact the scholarship had on their ability to intern in legislative offices. The scholarship helps students who are interning with an elected official, a position which is normally unpaid.
Afterwards, The Patman Center Research Award For Advancing Democracy recipients, undergraduate students Andreana Faucette and Paulina Licon, spoke about their research and what winning the award meant to them. The Patman research award is given to students whose research helps strengthen democracy and offers insight into how to help it thrive. This year, the award-winning paper was titled, “Public Participation and Democracy: A Case Study of Latin America.”
Later in the evening, Patman faculty affiliate Evan Smith sat down with former U.S. Representative Walters (R) and former Ambassador Kirk (D) to discuss the state of our democracy and how they became civic leaders themselves. They also spoke on the election and what it’s like to serve the minority party in a state dominated by the majority.
The Leadership Symposium was a great way to honor The Patman Center and everyone involved in the past year. We look forward to seeing everyone next year!
If you want to take classes with The Patman Center, check them out here.
Learn more about how to become a Patman Scholar or the Research Award for Advancing Democracy.