Goldman School of Public Policy

By Rishi Ahuja Climbing is hard. The thought kept rumbling around my head as I tried to put one step in front of the other, up the punishing slopes of Mt.

Last month, the 25,000-member American Educational Research Association selected David Kirp’s “Improbable Scholars” for its 2014 Outstanding Book Award. The honor, reserved for education’s intellectual heavyweights, is not only a nod to Kirp’s scholarly achievement, but more, an acknowledgement of the power of marrying journalism and policy into a narrative that can drive public interest where there is seemingly so little: systems change.

By Josh Neff My friend Steven decided to become a doctor because he wanted to serve the poor. When it came time to choose a specialty, however, he picked pediatrics because he said he had run out of patience for the self-destructive behavior he saw among some adult patients in underserved communities.

By Tim Morrison When children are removed from their homes, foster care agencies prefer to place them with caregivers who are related, often grandparents. Unlike adoptive parents, however, nearly nine out of 10 of these grandparent caregivers who are eligible for benefits that support children newly in their care do not receive them, and in most cases purposefully reject them, because of the way they are administered.

by Sarah Benjamin University of California-Berkeley senior Hilary Vansell knows how difficult it is for teenagers to access accurate information about pregnancy prevention.  She has been dispelling myths and raising awareness about contraception in Oakland public high schools as a peer health educator since she was a sophomore.