The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy

The Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences at Dartmouth College was founded in 1983 to commemorate the contributions of Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller ’30 to the life of the nation.  The Rockefeller Center educates, trains, and inspires the next generation of public policy leaders, across fields, through multidisciplinary policy and social science-focused education, engagements and public lectures with distinguished visiting scholars and practitioners, policy-oriented research across the social sciences, and skills training.  The Center connects experiences in and out of the classroom, and on and off campus, to achieve these goals.

The academic and curricular offerings of the Rockefeller Center provide a wide range of opportunities for students to engage with public policy in their areas of interest.  In addition to enrolling in one of the more than 20 public policy courses offered each year, students have the ability to complete a public policy minor for in-depth exploration of the policy process, policy research and analysis, and a targeted focus on a substantive policy area (e.g., law, health, environment, economics, foreign affairs, social policy).  The Center sponsors the Policy Research Shop, a student-staffed, faculty-mentored research enterprise in which students conduct research at the request of New Hampshire and Vermont state, county, and local government officials.  The Center also offers an exchange program with Keble College at the University of Oxford, and grants to students working on honors thesis research projects in the social sciences.

Outside the classroom, the Center provides students with robust programs designed to cultivate their leadership capacities and interests.  These programs include the First-Year Fellows Program in Washington, DC; funding for off-campus internships; the Judicial Fellowship Program; a Mini-Grant program for supporting student initiatives; Dartmouth Model UN Program; and a sequence of leadership training programs including Dartmouth Leadership Attitudes and Behaviors and Rockefeller Leadership Fellows.  The Center's Public Programs and Special Events also provide students with regular opportunities to meet and engage with distinguished visiting scholars and practitioners.