Arthur Atkin

Expected MPA 2017

Arthur is a second year MPA student who has resided in Storrs, Connecticut, since moving from a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, in middle school. He therefore has the luxury of supporting Cleveland and New England sports franchises, and is an avid basketball and football fan. As an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut, double-majoring in Political Science and Human Rights, Arthur enrolled in the MPA program as a Fast-Track student in Spring 2014. Throughout his undergraduate career, Arthur continually sought to serve his local and collegiate community. He worked at the UConn Student Union for four years (including two and a half years as a Building Manager), served as Philanthropy Chairman for his fraternity (Tau Kappa Epsilon) and Executive VP of Recruitment for the Inter-Fraternity Council, and was Director-General for UConn’s Model U.N. club. Arthur also began playing the piano from an early age and continues to embrace his love for music as a DJ with several years of performance experience.

Arthur is currently participating in the Department of Public Policy’s Internship and Professional Practice (IPP) program as a Human Resources intern at the Town of Cromwell, Connecticut. Under the supervision of the Town Manager, his primary duty is to draft and recommend personnel management policy over a broad range of personnel management goals. He also interned on the Design, Monitoring and Evaluation team at Freedom House during Summer 2015 after being awarded a grant from the University of Connecticut’s Human Rights Institute. At Freedom House, a non-partisan institution that has advocated for democracy and human rights (globally) since 1941, Arthur provided support for the business development functions of all teams at the organization’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Arthur was attracted to the MPA program because of its utility for bolstering his understanding of American Political Development (APD). He hopes to apply the skills from the program’s quantitative, public budgeting and economics courses towards a career in research analysis, consulting or advocacy. Arthur is particularly interested in topics related to affordable healthcare provision in the U.S. and addressing the education achievement gap, which reinforces his beliefs in health as a human right, and the need for policymaking to address the root causes of educational inequity amongst various demographics. He dreams of working for the Pew Research Center (or a similar research institution), but in the long term, Arthur is also considering PhD programs in Public Policy or Political Science for a career as a professor. Arthur’s older sister, Annabelle, is currently working towards her PhD in Family and Human Development at Arizona State University, and his parents are both PhD Professors in Communication Sciences at the University of Connecticut. His family’s strong academic tradition is a source of inspiration for him and a legacy he strives to live up to.