Purpose & Policy: Inspiring Paths in Political and Civic Life with Maureen Heffern Ponicki

What can you do with a political science degree? More than you think. In this episode, Rebecca interviews Professor Maureen Heffren-Ponicki to explore the many ways students can turn their passion for politics, justice, and community into meaningful careers. From public service to grassroots organizing, policy research to civic education, Professor Heffren-Ponicki shares real-world insights, personal stories, and empowering advice for students ready to make a difference. Whether you're dreaming of Capitol Hill or your local city hall, this conversation will help you find your path—and your purpose.

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Transcript

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:25:05
Unknown
Welcome to the Career Ready Podcast. Learn about resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn, interviewing, and all the things you need to be career ready with the Career Services Center at College of DuPage. I'm your host for today's episode, Rebecca Harrington. In addition to learning about resources and the job search process, an important part of being career ready is understanding different career paths to help us explore professions in political science.

00:00:25:12 - 00:00:34:27
Unknown
I have invited Maureen Heffron, panicky, to talk with me today. Maureen is a professor of political science here at the College of DuPage. Welcome.

00:00:34:27 - 00:00:46:21
Unknown
Thank you. I'm happy to be here. All right, so before we get started, can you share a short introduction or, of course, as we like to call it, in career services, your elevator pitch.

00:00:46:21 - 00:01:10:28
Unknown
Sure. So, as you mentioned, I'm, associate professor of political science and chair of our political science department here at College of DuPage. Teaching is a second career for me. I spent my first career in the nonprofit sector doing work at the community level, grassroots organizing, social work, community development, and doing work at the policy level, especially on global economic policy and trade policy.

00:01:11:00 - 00:01:17:28
Unknown
So I've worked in Latin America and across the U.S. I worked in Peru with street and working children in New York state, with migrant farmworkers in the city of

00:01:17:28 - 00:01:26:02
Unknown
Chicago with foster children and teen parents, and in, Los Angeles, organizing communities to prevent teen pregnancy, worked in

00:01:26:02 - 00:01:42:26
Unknown
Philadelphia with the American Friends Service Committee on a project, to try to what we call democratize the global economy, which basically meant we were working in, coalition with groups across Latin America to make trade policy more fair and just for everyday people.

00:01:42:28 - 00:02:08:02
Unknown
So I've done strategic planning for nonprofits, service learning programs. And then I tumbled into teaching. I got in the classroom as an adjunct professor and thought, wait, why haven't I been doing this? I love teaching, and I love how political science allows us to seek answers to, oh, so many questions about our world. And, as I mentioned, all the different types of jobs I did.

00:02:08:09 - 00:02:31:04
Unknown
Political science allows you a lot of flexibility in designing your own career path. Yeah, that's actually surprising to hear all of the places you lived and all the work that you've done, I think a lot of students might be surprised to think of that as political science. I think, you know, we see politicians on TV all the time, and we think that it's politics.

00:02:31:05 - 00:02:57:19
Unknown
Like only if I want to run for office is that that's the only reason I'd major in political science. But it doesn't sound like that's necessarily the case. No, in fact, that is one of the first things I say in class is most of you will think of political science as elections and campaigns. But political science is simply the process of understanding how we as a community basically get along.

00:02:57:21 - 00:03:27:02
Unknown
There's a famous political scientist, Harold Lasswell, who famously said, political science is studying, who gets what, when and how. Oh, that's it. Who gets what, when and how? Who, who gets unemployment? How long do they get it? Who takes care of kids if the parents, can't, who pays for the parks? So in political science, we just study this process and especially how power is built, whether it's by the people, the grassroots, by the elite, etc..

00:03:27:02 - 00:03:38:23
Unknown
But how do you use power to affect those decisions of who gets what, when and how? Oh, that's wonderful. And if you think about it right, there's so many resources in the world and figuring out

00:03:38:23 - 00:03:48:08
Unknown
and kind of managing all of that is a huge process, especially because those resources are fixed. Yes. So we have to figure out how to share them.

00:03:48:10 - 00:04:08:10
Unknown
Absolutely. So kind of dive a little deeper then. So can you tell us a little bit about, you know again the field of political science and government and the different career paths it can lead to? Yeah. Great. So what this field does for students is it equips them with the critical thinking skills that are essential to thrive in any career.

00:04:08:13 - 00:04:31:15
Unknown
They learn to read tough stuff, they learn to write and communicate out. They learn to, more about the scientific process as it pertains to the political and social world. They become deeper thinkers. That's actually my number one goal for them to become a deeper thinker about our world, which alerts them to unintended consequences of a policy, decision.

00:04:31:15 - 00:04:58:10
Unknown
It helps them to protect them from baseless conspiracy theories, and it unlocks the many keys that exist for making change. So students can then leave that sense of powerlessness behind. So many feel like I can't make a change. But once you begin to learn how the world works and how the policies work, it's in. It's in that learning that you see the path to change.

00:04:58:12 - 00:05:27:13
Unknown
So for this reason, political science has long been a solid major that can build into a path, obviously into politics. But also law. It's long been one of the dominant paths into law. But business, journalism, communications, teaching, the nonprofit sector and many, many more. So what I often tell students is, if you're not sure what exactly you want to do, this is often one of those great majors that gives you the flexibility.

00:05:27:15 - 00:05:48:04
Unknown
You just need the degree to then go try this job in business and then realize, oh well, maybe I don't like that. So then you, you of course have to do some networking and market yourself and all that, but then you can try something in another field, and then you can try something in another field. So you don't have to have figured out what you're going to do for the rest of your life right now.

00:05:48:06 - 00:06:19:29
Unknown
But I do tell them to follow their intellectual joy. Like what jazzes you up when you learn about it? And if political science is something that you get excited about when you read, well, sewn into that model that. Yeah. Or if you like the problem solving piece of it, if you like managing a project or, you know, I like that there's so many skills that are transferable that we know we we talk a lot on this podcast about the Nace competencies and, that, these are the skills that all employers are looking for.

00:06:20:01 - 00:06:53:24
Unknown
And the number one is always, problem solving, right? Troubleshoot, you know, troubleshooting, whatever you want to call it, critical thinking and then also communication. So it sounds like a great field to learn those skills. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. That's that's in fact what you practice. Right. Yeah. I think you know, and actually listening to you is I think a lot of students now think of business as the that kind of like default degree of like, I'm not sure what I want to do, so I'm just going to major in business.

00:06:53:26 - 00:07:34:28
Unknown
And that's not bad. It's what I studied. But I like the idea of thinking about political science, you know, social sciences as an option that can help, you know, give you even a wider variety of options when you graduate. Yeah. So and I think what it often does to is it allows you to, to problem solve in a very comprehensive way, in the sense that you look at history, you look at economics, you look at culture, you look at, how human behavior, you look at institutions, like how do institutions work.

00:07:35:00 - 00:07:58:10
Unknown
And so all of that is really helpful when you're thinking about problem solving. So it's those analytical skills to be able to pull all these different strands together and say, oh, well, this has happened in history, and I know this has happened. And might we be careful if we move in this direction? But what about that? So yeah, I think it's a real, it's a deep way to kind of approach multiple jobs.

00:07:58:17 - 00:08:22:29
Unknown
Yeah, definitely. You know, I'm thinking about it now. I loved my poli sci classes in college, and I probably should have paid more attention, or gone with that. You know. No, that's super exciting. So let's let's go a little bit further with the skills and strengths. Right? So, you know, what are some more skills and strengths students gained while completing a political science program or taking a series of courses?

00:08:22:29 - 00:08:45:08
Unknown
And how does it help them prepare for a bachelor's degree? So again, we're talking about, you know, College of DuPage and associates. So preparing for the bachelor's degree and then a job afterwards. Right. So as you mentioned, arguably one of the most sought after skills in the workplace is communication, both oral and written. So political science classes will train you to communicate effectively.

00:08:45:10 - 00:09:11:26
Unknown
You will also acquire, as we kind of mentioned, the analytical skills and the data skills. Political science has a, large quantitative, angle to it, especially if you go on for the bachelor's. So analyzing complex issues, identifying patterns, sorting through a dense information landscape, and then identifying ways to move forward and solve problems are the types of skills a student can expect to build.

00:09:11:29 - 00:10:00:24
Unknown
Additionally, we as I mentioned, we use quantitative, but also qualitative methods to understand the world as well as humanistic perspectives. So we're considered a social science, but in many ways also part of the liberal arts. So we use all different approaches to understand the world. Students can, will learn to appreciate different points of view. They learn to talk across difference, and they can leverage those skills, for most future jobs or studies, I think of, as I know, you know, lots about we, here at College of DuPage bring in groups that help students talk across political difference, and we tell them that the research shows that when you debate

00:10:00:24 - 00:10:30:10
Unknown
someone, you're not going to change their mind. And we want to, but you're not going to. So better to invest your time in truly listening and understanding, because by listening and understanding you, you get a deeper, you become a deeper thinker. So if you problem solving and you're not listening to somebody because you just don't like what they're saying, or maybe the way that they're saying it, you're not going to help your company, your nonprofit, your school to kind of move forward.

00:10:30:10 - 00:10:52:20
Unknown
If you can't hear what people are saying. So political science really, because as we know, we have a little problem out in society right now, definitely, where we're struggling to listen to one another. So we're really, going deep on that skill right now in the classrooms. Yeah. I think a lot of our student listeners, I owe a lot of listeners.

00:10:52:20 - 00:11:19:08
Unknown
Right. But definitely someone that's younger even, you know, is looking at our political climate right now and thinking like that just seems difficult, you know? And so I think this is a way to think about, you know, how could you change things. And I think, too, sometimes it can seem overwhelming. But when you have those fundamental skills and then you find like thinking about your career path, right?

00:11:19:08 - 00:11:49:06
Unknown
You find a problem you want to work on, and then you work on that. And that's all we can do, right is kind of piece by piece. Absolutely. And we're finding that students tend to not want to talk about these issues even in the classroom. And that's worrisome. Yeah. Because that's where that's our laboratory for learning. And if you can't, I think people forget that sometimes when someone's talking, they're thinking, right.

00:11:49:07 - 00:12:18:17
Unknown
There's certain people that think first and then talk, and there's some people who need to talk to think. Me too. Yes, my husband doesn't understand this, but that's just how it is. Yes. So if you can't talk about these issues, then you can't think. So we have to make these, spaces safe, but not so safe that you're not able to speak and kind of push some of the boundaries.

00:12:18:17 - 00:12:22:29
Unknown
And that's, you know, that's a very hard thing in this day and age because,

00:12:22:29 - 00:12:48:22
Unknown
you know, speech sometimes can push people to feel uncomfortable. And so how do we do that? Where that's okay. But obviously what we don't like, I always say in my classrooms, we do this with respect and that and learning is never disrespectful. Asking a question out of real curiosity is not disrespectful.

00:12:48:22 - 00:13:13:14
Unknown
We no disrespect when we see it. So those are fine lines and helping people to understand that just because you ask a question don't feel like people are judging you. You asked a question and that is always allowed in the school. Yeah, well, and I think that's that goes to the the skills and strengths. Right, is that you're learning how to communicate, how to ask questions and how to express opinions.

00:13:13:16 - 00:13:33:14
Unknown
And I agree, I've, I've, I've long said to students school is where you do this is is the best place to do it. Because once you graduate and you're kind of out in the workforce, you you might feel more constrained in a professional setting to kind of ask questions or explore these ideas. This is the safest possible place.

00:13:33:14 - 00:13:58:14
Unknown
So, I, I love all that. So are there experiences or opportunities that you recommend developing professional seek out while preparing to start a career in politics, government, advocacy, all of that? Yes. Yeah. So I would say there's probably two things that are the most important thing for a student to do now. One, internships are volunteering.

00:13:58:16 - 00:14:17:01
Unknown
So and I know you strongly believe in this as well, but I cannot say enough about it, especially if you're a student that's unsure of what you want to do. You got to get out there and try stuff out and, internships. I think our country needs to do a better job of really boosting the applied learning.

00:14:17:01 - 00:14:41:22
Unknown
Yes. Opportunities. Absolutely. But volunteering. And as somebody, as I mentioned, from the nonprofit sector, volunteering is really doing all of those things as well. You're getting the experience. You are trying to decide whether you want to do this right. Does it does it bring life to you? Because that's essentially what students should be looking for. Does this bring does this fill me up or not?

00:14:41:25 - 00:15:05:03
Unknown
Because there's something out there that you can you have to find your gift. So you're going into these internships or volunteering to try to figure out what your gift is. But then you're also meeting and networking and networks are so crucial to this whole thing, of career success. But your networking. But then also say you're the type of volunteer who showed up every day, was terrific, was never late.

00:15:05:10 - 00:15:28:22
Unknown
When you then go to get a job, you're calling that boss, and their boss is going to give you a glowing recommendation. So internships, volunteering, service, learning any of those, that is the number one thing students should be doing now. Secondly, and this may seem like a little thing, but unfortunately it's not. You should be learning how to consume accurate news now.

00:15:28:22 - 00:15:29:20
Unknown
We

00:15:29:20 - 00:15:52:27
Unknown
we are in desperate need of informed citizens. We need each and every person to be playing their part, which means stop consuming news if you don't know if it's accurate. So students always ask me, you know, how do you get rid of bias. And I say you know bias is in the human person. You're never going to completely get rid of it.

00:15:52:29 - 00:16:13:11
Unknown
We want to get rid of extreme bias. But more importantly we want to get rid of inaccurate news. We don't want to be spending our time reading things that were fabricated that are false. So work on learning how to consume accurate news. Those would be the two things I'd say to do I yeah, I agree obviously with both of those.

00:16:13:11 - 00:16:32:05
Unknown
And I think that accurate news piece it's it is it's much harder in today's world with all of our social media, you know, it's it's like we can get news from more and more places, but then that also means we can get news and more and more it's. So, yeah, I. Yeah, I would say I think I like the word extreme.

00:16:32:05 - 00:16:38:25
Unknown
If something makes you feel extreme in one way or the other, I would question it. You know, maybe look for for more. I

00:16:39:01 - 00:16:48:13
Unknown
So what are you doing in your program here at College of DuPage, specifically to help prepare students for the field? Great. So I would say we're working in three main areas.

00:16:48:15 - 00:17:10:21
Unknown
One is obviously classwork and the training that goes on in the classroom. We offer a wide variety of classes, ranging from the fundamental classes such as American Politics, Introduction to Political Science. Those are two great classes for students to get started in, but we also offer more specific ones, such as state and local politics, urban politics, comparative politics, and world politics.

00:17:10:21 - 00:17:38:20
Unknown
So we've got a lot for students to kind of really explore with. So that's, the one thing. Secondly, we have a couple of fabulous student clubs. We have a stellar model U.N. club that gives students the opportunity. And this one is really, applied learning because they practice research, they practice public speaking, coalition building and networking with students from around the world at various conferences.

00:17:38:23 - 00:18:01:26
Unknown
That one, I can't say enough about the actual skill building piece of it. And I would say, you know, we often talk about those soft skills or whatever they're calling them now. But, when a student's at a model unconference and they have to kind of build a block and a group of countries that are going to help them, that's all that soft skills networking.

00:18:01:26 - 00:18:26:09
Unknown
And you can't learn that in the classroom. You have to practice it. So model U.N. club is one the second club, that a lot of political science majors, have joined is our Unicef club, which, is a club that works closely with Unicef, out of the UN, to make change for children around the world to raise awareness about what's going on.

00:18:26:09 - 00:18:53:19
Unknown
They do some fundraisers, and it just, and they get to, you know, build their networks amongst students who have similar passions. So that's the second thing is student clubs. And then the third thing is internships. So we connect, individual basis students with opportunities locally, with politicians nationally, even internationally. We've had students, get some great opportunities.

00:18:53:22 - 00:19:14:05
Unknown
We send them on to our fabulous career center here at College of DuPage. But I would say those would be the three areas, the classwork, the student clubs, and then the internships. One thing that was really exciting to me is you've had some really good speakers that have come in, too. I, I went to the one that was from the State Department and that was so interesting.

00:19:14:05 - 00:19:35:15
Unknown
There's so many careers. Who would have thought, if you want to travel, you want to live in other countries and then do things like, I just I was exciting. Yes, yes. No, I should have mentioned that that we have, kind of a speaker series and we try to bring in people. So the real world, we hear from politicians and different areas, like the State Department.

00:19:35:19 - 00:19:58:21
Unknown
What was interesting about that State Department was that you didn't need the bachelor's for certain positions, and I didn't know that. I didn't know that, yes. You know, you kind of think you must have to have something special. Yeah. And, no, no, they, you know, just need a a good interest in it. Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Is there anything else that you recommend to students or young professionals to prepare to work in this field?

00:19:58:21 - 00:20:00:28
Unknown
Because I'm sure it can be

00:20:00:28 - 00:20:02:20
Unknown
in some ways,

00:20:02:20 - 00:20:04:00
Unknown
a very

00:20:04:00 - 00:20:22:00
Unknown
wonderful field to work in, but also sometimes a frustrating field to work in. Because sometimes things don't always go the way that you'd like or you kind of have to, to, to change things up. And, anyways, just what what are some things you would recommend to to get students ready to work in this field?

00:20:22:02 - 00:20:45:12
Unknown
So first of all, I would say get in and try the classes. Because as you, as we started this off, you mentioned that most people think it's just about campaigns and elections. Get in and try the classes so you can kind of figure out what this field is about. Second, what we already talked about, which is the internships, volunteering, service learning, get out there and do something.

00:20:45:14 - 00:21:16:11
Unknown
But then also I would say begin to build your networks. You scrub your social media profiles and make friends in all your classes. Yes. You never know who's dad works for. What? Or cousin is something. Yes. Or those. Those friends will be the people that you call as. As your career goes on, they're going to be the ones that work at a different company, and you're going to call them up and say, oh, do you know somebody who works here, etc., etc. they will be your networks.

00:21:16:13 - 00:21:49:01
Unknown
So I always say, network horizontally. And, and, and I often say, if you don't like the word networking, just make friends. Sure. Because that's actually the beauty of it. Your friends become your network and then also network vertically with your professors. Come to our office hours, get to know us. That is there's there's been some studies on, success long term for students, and they find that it doesn't necessarily rank with or, or track with the rank of the college.

00:21:49:04 - 00:22:10:19
Unknown
What it tracks with on both long term earnings and happiness is if the student got involved in the institution in which they're studying at. And so and that speaks to those networks and you get to know people. Did you get involved in a club? Did you talk to your professor? And they thought, oh, you'd be a perfect one to, you know, do some research on this project that I heard about.

00:22:10:21 - 00:22:38:08
Unknown
So the more you do that, the more people, you know, the more connections you build. And the research on connections generally is just solid as a rock. Like, yeah, point that. We just know that connections is the stuff of, personal career success. But also, you know, in, in my perspective, like making change, you know, on an issue, right, about making connections.

00:22:38:08 - 00:22:59:01
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think if you're involved in something and if you want to break to make change, the more people you know, the better connections you have, the more likely you are to maybe be able to make that change. I also, we always tell students in our career services department, as a student, this is the best time to network because you are student.

00:22:59:03 - 00:23:24:13
Unknown
Anyone will talk to you if they don't, it's just because they don't have time. It's not because they don't want to. Everyone wants to talk to students. This is the time to reach high is you want, as far as you want, to to network with people because, this is, this is the situation that all professionals want to be in is that students want to talk to them.

00:23:24:17 - 00:23:45:17
Unknown
Yes. It's kind of amazing. You see how many people want to help? Yes. You they they spend their time and they it's it's always astounds me how good people are and how giving of their time. And I agree, there's some that don't have time. Sure, but for the most part, people turn around and help out those behind them coming up.

00:23:45:17 - 00:24:04:19
Unknown
Absolutely. You just have to ask. Yeah. Which is, I think sometimes a scary part. And a skill. Yes. And a skill. So practicing. Yes. Oh, wonderful. So if if a student or a listener is interested in learning more about the program here at Cod, what can they do? So I would say go to the Cod website, search political science.

00:24:04:19 - 00:24:32:25
Unknown
You will come you will be able to see all of our courses, different career maps we have. Some programs are articulation agreements where you could do two years here and then transfer into another, school to get your bachelor's. So definitely look at that. But then you can email or call me directly. My number is 630942 2012 but call me directly or email and let's talk.

00:24:32:25 - 00:24:49:29
Unknown
We would love to have you. Yeah. I think a lot of people don't realize that our faculty here love to talk to prospective students. That's part of your job? Yes. We're so excited to do it. So she's not lying. She really does want you to reach out to her. Exactly. Well, thank you so much for being here.

00:24:49:29 - 00:25:09:24
Unknown
Is there anything else you want to share? Anything we missed? No. I guess the last thing you kind of said in the beginning. But I'm just going to reiterate it. If you don't know what you want to do, start the reason, college to page where we have certain requirements and say your social and behavioral sciences and you have to take a few classes.

00:25:09:26 - 00:25:39:01
Unknown
Use that to help explore. So from my perspective, whether you go into political science as a career or you get one solid class and you become a better citizen and help us to self-govern this crazy democracy, so be it. But get out there and explore through the classes. Yeah. And I thought, you know, I actually something that I heard you say once that there's what really made me want to have you on today, too, is talking about how being a college is not.

00:25:39:01 - 00:26:06:25
Unknown
It's. Yes, it's helping prepare you for a career, but it's also helping you. To be a better citizen. Yeah, that's a really important thing. Yes. In fact, college is where our founders developed the first higher education institutions because they knew if we are going to have a democracy, then we have to have an educated populace. And so it's the prime reason why we have colleges is so that we can, quote unquote, self-govern.

00:26:06:28 - 00:26:28:04
Unknown
And so, yes, I feel very passionate. Yes. All right. Well, thanks to all of our listeners. And special thanks again to Maureen for joining us today on the podcast. We hope you enjoyed hearing about careers in political science and remember, if you have a question for us, you can submit it to career Podcasts at KOD Edu or on social media at Cody Career Center.

00:26:28:08 - 00:26:31:11
Unknown
And you may hear the answer in a future episode.