Penn Public Policy Challenge Winner Heads to National Competition

The Fels Public Policy Challenge asks Penn students from all schools to address real-world problems by teaming up to make their own public policy.

“The PPC unleashes a huge amount of positive problem-solving energy,” says Fels Executive Director David Thornburgh. “It challenges students to come up with an idea and figure out how it’s going to work, who’s going to pay for it, what difference it’ll make, and what the obstacles and opportunities around it really are.”

This year the teams for the fourth annual Challenge worked with outside stakeholders more than ever before, strengthening their experience and their ideas. During the presentations of the five finalists, one of the judges, Pennsylvania State Representative Dwight Evans, several times asked, “Why hasn't this been implemented yet?"

The winning team, re:Mind, discovered that the top reason people discharged from inpatient mental health hospitalizations miss their follow up appointments is that they simply forget. The team advocated for the adoption of a reminder interface using text messaging, phone calls, and email.

Learn more about the Challenge finals in this article by a participant, and about the second annual National Invitational Public Policy Challenge, to be held in Philadelphia March 16-17.