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Our public universities have to do more to make sure they’re not merely credentialing factories for the already advantaged, and that they are instead actively building pipelines for students from high schools like mine, composed of large numbers of minority and low-income students, struggling with accreditation, and stuck with low college enrollment. Policymakers should take steps to ensure this happens.

Former speaker of Virginia's House of Delegates William J. Howell received the 2018 Outstanding Virginian award at a ceremony at Batten's Garrett Hall.

"North Korea spent several decades and billions of scarce dollars developing its nuclear and missile capabilities. (North Korean leader Kim Jong Un) is not going to give them up in exchange for a handshake and a smile." — Todd Sechser

"People listen much more when it’s the CEO apologizing...As part of the apology, there probably needs to be some offer of repair—an attempt to make it right." — Gabrielle Adams (photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)

Diane D’Costa is studying Leadership and Public Policy, and Youth and Social Innovation, as the first student to double-major across Batten and the Curry School of Education. For her, policy and education form a perfect marriage. (photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)

Marine veteran Kim Johnson will become a 2018 graduate of Batten, adding to a list of accomplishments that includes 20 years of military service, including duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. She is a retired E-8 Master Sergeant. (photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)

Marine veteran Kim Johnson will become a 2018 graduate of Batten, adding to a list of accomplishments that includes 20 years of military service, including duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. She is a retired E-8 Master Sergeant. (photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)

Today, the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) and the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy announced the winners of the 2018 NASPAA-Batten Student Simulation Competition—the largest-ever student simulation competition in higher education.

"Any (agricultural) system...will require genetic diversity. The best I can do right now is try to conserve that diversity.” — Morgan Carrington “Cary” Fowler Jr., known as the “father” of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway. (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications)

On Friday, the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello will present the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals as part of a series of events commemorating Jefferson’s birthday, known at UVA as Founder’s Day. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Citizen Leadership is sponsored by the Batten School. Dr. Cary Fowler, the 2018 Citizen Leadership medalist, will speak to Batten School students during a private luncheon on Thursday, April 12 at 12:00 p.m.

"When an apology keeps being issued over and over and a transgression keeps being repeated, the apology comes to have less meaning and less impact." — Batten's Gabrielle Adams

Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to climb Mount Everest and the Seven Summits, gave an inspiring talk about overcoming barriers to Batten students and others in the Dome Rome of the University of Virginia’s Rotunda. Weihenmayer was Batten's Class of 2018 spring speaker.