STEP at Virginia Tech

STEP FOCUS: HOW POLICY IS MADE

In order to be effective participants in policy processes, science, technology, engineering, mathematics and healthcare (STEM-H) experts need to have an understanding of how policy is made, implemented, and evaluated. The STEP program introduces participants to fundamental principles of policy in practice, in all of their complexity, including tools for understanding policy processes.

The STEP program explores how policy is made through case-based examples relevant to STEM-H students.

STEP learning objective: Analyze how policy processes unfold using concepts and constructs that explicitly consider governance institutions and decision dynamics. STEP learning objective: Apply a suite of quantitative and qualitative tools to identify and address the multiple dimensions of complex policy development and implementation challenges.