Students Develop Leadership Skills, Serve Communities in Schaefer Center's NextGen Program
Rhea Rene stood on a wooden platform at least two stories above the ground, waiting for her turn on the ropes course.
She had the gear that was made to protect her, but inches from the step-off point, she froze. Her peers across the rope noticed her hesitation and started shouting words of encouragement.
Three hours before this moment, most of these supporters were strangers to Rene. But this retreat with the Chesapeake Bay Outward Bound School, organized as part of the Schaefer Center for Public Policy’s NextGen Leaders Program, quickly unified them through trust-building exercises. Their cheers were the catalyst Rene needed to step onto the rope and once she did, she didn’t look back.
“I just needed to know that people would be there to help me and catch me, and if I know that I'm not alone, I know that I can do what I want to,” said Rene, a junior Business Administration major focused on marketing and psychology. “I felt really good having people around me and helping me through that challenge.”
The ropes course was part of a two-day retreat that the Schaefer Center hosts to mark a new year of its NextGen Leaders Program. The Schaefer Center, part of The University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs, launched the NextGen program in 2022 to help students from all majors explore careers in public service through paid internships, co-curricular activities, and professional development.
Dr. Roger Hartley, dean of the College of Public Affairs, brought the idea to UBalt from his time with University of Arizona’s business school. He likened it to an entrepreneurship center. Rather than focusing on developing students’ business ventures, however, this program helps students practice their skills in public service and leadership through paid internships.
Hatching the program with Dr. Ann Cotten, B.S. ’85, M.S. ’86, CERT ’92, D.P.A. ’03, director of the Schaefer Center, was a natural step in the process. The center already had several partnerships with government agencies and nonprofit organizations throughout Maryland.
Finding Themselves, Leading Others
The benefits of the NextGen program for students go beyond an internship.
For Rene, the retreat was a first of many lessons in learning who she is and who she can be.
During part of the retreat, the students had to consider their aspirations and what they’re fighting for. Hearing her fellow students, who came to Baltimore from all over the world, helped Rene realize how much in common she had with this once group of strangers. When she felt fear on the ropes course, she knew they had felt it too, and went anyway. That helped her take her first steps and then encourage others behind her to do the same.
“I've always believed that I'm not much of a leader, I'm more of like a follower. I don't usually want to take action, but I feel like at one point we all have a leader inside of us, and it depends on which situation it will just come out,” Rene said. “I feel like that's what the NextGen Program has taught me so far. Now I feel like I'm more confident in whatever I do, in my professional work obviously, but it helped me in my personal life, too. … I have a leader inside of me.”
The NextGen program placed Kiara Deloatch, a recent B.S. in Cyber Forensics graduate, with the IT department in the state comptroller’s office.
Initially, Deloatch saw it as a chance at in-field experience that could help set her apart in an industry that typically has a high barrier to entry. She ended up with two back-to-back internships there and a position after her upcoming graduation.
“I definitely wouldn't have gotten that if the program didn't exist,” she said. “Especially for IT, the job market right now is not very great, and I like to have that foot in the door.”
Deloatch wanted to help people using her technical skills and thought studying cyber forensics could lead to a job where she could fill a need. NextGen bridged her interests and abilities.
“Every day I'm coming in there and people have these problems, and I'm like able to fix them. And then we chat, and I get to know them,” she said. “I'm not extroverted, but it forces me out of my element. You make those connections that you wouldn't necessarily make behind the scenes. So, I really enjoy that part of it, too.”
Breaking Barriers
Divinevictory Amayo, a B.S. in Information Systems and Technology Management student, wanted an internship before he graduated. He learned about NextGen through the University’s job site for students, UBWorks.
Amayo was open to any kind of real experience he could add to his resume when he landed an interview with NextGen’s program manager, Pat Mikos, MPA ’11.
“They lined me up at a site the next week,” he said.
His first job involved helping the town administrator of Cheverly. It gave him new insight to local government operations and office management.
The next semester, Amayo landed a position in his field as an intern with Baltimore City Information and Technology (BCIT).
“It was a great experience there. I learned more about my field and the different divisions of technology that I could work,” he said. “My major is broad, but IT has a lot of specific fields in there, so they placed me in the application department team, but I also got to meet all the different teams in BCIT. … That experience, that learning process was valuable to me.”
This fall, Amayo took break from site work to serve as an ambassador for the program’s national organization.
The whole experience has taught him much about leadership that will serve him long after graduation.
“I'm actually very introverted, and this is out of my comfort zone, so I needed to learn, one, how to able to communicate with different team members and then I needed to be able to learn how to delegate,” he said.
Finding His Voice
Todd Barnes wasn’t sure what to expect when he transferred from West Virginia University to University of Baltimore after the pandemic brought him home to Baltimore. Then his career adviser pointed him toward the NextGen program.
The program is giving Barnes an early start at the exact type of work he wants to do after graduation. It’s what Barnes, a B.A. in Psychology student, called “a match made in heaven.”
He has been working with the Baltimore City Council in District 7 under James Torrence, M.S. ’14, J.D. ’17. His work involves managing 3-1-1 calls, neighborhood cleanups and fellowship events.
Through the process, Barnes has been able to connect with new people and develop himself as a communicator and leader.
“Growing up, I was definitely more reserved, so I think it helped me get out of my shell a little bit more and just be myself around people, not try to be anyone else,” Barnes said. … “Just being vocal will open doors for myself. Like closed mouths don't get fed, in a way. So even when I'm at work, I'll say having input and then getting that reassurance from my manager or my councilman to say, ‘Oh, that is a good idea. Actually, we should implement that,’ that also helps me.”
Finding and using his voice helped Barnes land a bigger role. He is now managing a newsletter and social media pages for his councilman.
It’s been such a positive experience for Barnes that he encourages others to apply to join the NextGen program.
“I think the connections that you can make are definitely not a four-year program. After you graduate, there's a life with NextGen. I feel like all my friend relationships, all of my supervisor-manager relationships will last post-graduation,” he said. “So, I encourage everyone to join. They'll help you find a position that you want and it's very versatile. There are so many different jobs that you could do from tech, STEM, whatever you want to do, I feel like NextGen could literally find it for you.”