Graduate Archer Fellowship Program Alumni Profiles
Wei-Ling Sun
Summer 2016 Archer Fellow
Internship: Advancement Project
Education
Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan
B.A. English Literature; May 2009
The University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D. Educational Policy and Planning; Summer 2018
Career
Policy Research Associate at the Texas Center for Educational Policy at University of Texas at Austin
Summer 2016 Archer Fellow
Internship: Advancement Project
Education
Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan
B.A. English Literature; May 2009
The University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D. Educational Policy and Planning; Summer 2018
Career
Policy Research Associate at the Texas Center for Educational Policy at University of Texas at Austin
“A three-month internship as an Archer Fellow in D.C. has helped me to form my dissertation topic that can bridge research and practice together.
Q & A with Wei-Ling Sun
Please tell us more about your current position.
Drafting policy briefs, facilitating research projects.
What has been your general career path?
Become a tenure-track assistant professor in a university
How has being an Archer Fellow influenced your professional path and goals?
A three-month internship as an Archer Fellow in D.C. has helped me to form my dissertation topic that can bridge research and practice together. The Archer Graduate Program has also helped me to be certain about my career goals.
What do you value the most about your experience as an Archer Fellow?
I value the most about my experience in D.C. as an Archer Fellow is that the Graduate Program served as a key to a door of opportunities to networking, learning, and demystifying federal and national organizations and practitioners in Public Policy. Prior to an internship with a civil rights organization—Advancement Project, I could only contribute my passion to issues of school-to-prison pipeline on academic papers and conferences. The three-month internship has taken my passion to action. Meeting with like-minded practitioners, attorneys, and leaders, I finally feel like a member of change instead of a member of problem in the society. I could never view public policies the same way as in the past. Without the experience as an Archer Fellow, I could not continue the work I am dedicated to do in academia and in practice.
What was the most important thing you learned as an Archer Fellow?
I learned that D.C. is a place that put individual’s talent and passion to a right place.
What do you value the most about being an Archer Alumna?
I value the most is to continue being part of the Archer network. As an Archer alumna, I can always connect with other alumni wherever I go. It is also very empowering and aspiring to see my work during the D.C. internship is still making an impact on the society. To be able to contribute and support future Archers and expend my network with like-minded individuals is the biggest asset that being an Archer Alumni has brought to my life.
What is your favorite memory from the program?
My favorite moment is when my intern team submitted our final legal document to the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education. The Office decided to open an investigation as a civic matter to a school district.
Do you have advice for prospective students?
Do not let obstacles or fear discourage you to become an Archer Fellow. The Archer Center has great resources to support any challenges you may have from the beginning to the end of your internship. If your field of work is related to public policy, you should definitely become an Archer Fellow. It will help you to accomplish your goals out-side of your academic field and will put your skills and expertise into a good use. Most importantly, it provides valuable human capital that will help your career unexpectedly for a very long time.
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Greater Philadelphia Region. My organization has a wealth of available data, and my job is to help transform those datasets into practical and actionable insights. Some of these projects include prioritizing areas of need for transit and transportation investment, forecasting the region’s future land use, and evaluating the accuracy of our existing analysis approaches. Every day requires another tool in my spatial statistics and programming toolkit.
What has been your general career path?
Early in my undergraduate career, I was surprised to score a 103 in my introduction to statistics course. I served as a peer instructor for the course until graduation. Meanwhile, the rest of my undergraduate education focused on studying political institutions in the international context. I had a hunch that my love for statistics could somehow combine with my interest in politics. In the subsequent years, my career has been situated in that sweet spot, applying data analysis to public policy.
How has being an Archer Fellow influenced your professional path and goals?
Because of the Archer Center Graduate Program in Public Policy, I jumped feet-first into the deep end of public policy. My internship in D.C. focused on affordable housing development in the District, and my only background on the subject was the policy brief I had written for my Archer Center application. Three months later, I was intimately familiar with housing policy, funding mechanisms, and important political actors in D.C. and at the federal level. In my current position, I am swimming in an ocean of unfamiliar transit and transportation-related acronyms, but because of the Archer Program, I am invigorated by and unafraid of the challenge.
What do you value the most about your experience as an Archer Fellow?
D.C. is a place unlike any other: there, it’s actually cool to be a policy wonk. I was inspired by the examples of my mentors at work and at the Archer Center to embrace my nerdy inner data scientist. The conversations I began in D.C. continue to this day, including sharing research ideas and technical guidance. Though I now reside a few states away, it’s like I never left. The Graduate Program in Public Policy enhanced the quality of my work, but more importantly, it shaped my professional persona.
What was the most important thing you learned as an Archer Fellow?
First things first: I am an undeniable introvert. Before the Archer Program, I wasted a lot of time and mental energy worrying about emailing that professor or calling the veterinarian. During my summer as a Graduate Fellow, the program faculty and staff encouraged us to connect with other people in the District, and I witnessed my fearless cohort of Archer Fellows get out and network every day. As an Archer Fellow, I learned to transcend my mental stumbling block and communicate effectively.
What do you value the most about being an Archer Alumna?
Take your pick of any major U.S. city, and you’ll find a network of Archer Center alumni there—people who share your interests and are willing to offer help and advice any way they can. For example, I recently met a fellow data nerd at an Archer Fellow alumni coffee and networking event. We discussed interactive web mapping for hours. Later, at my master’s degree defense, I employed the web mapping techniques I learned about at that informal get-together. My faculty and peers were blown away. This is just one example of how the Graduate Program in Public Policy keeps on giving.
What is your favorite memory from the program?
There is nothing like living up and down the stairs from your program cohort. I love to share the joy of cooking, so I invited everyone over for dinner cooked by yours truly. After about a week of planning and prep, including hauling specialty ingredients and a 10-pound bag of rice on the Metro from the suburb of Hyattsville back to D.C., dinner was served. The apartment was alive with conversation for hours. My main point of pride: cooking for twenty-two with only one sharp knife.
Do you have advice for prospective students?
D.C. is more than an agglomeration of federal buildings and federal employees. It’s a unique place, essentially its own small state, with its own quirky history and activist culture. Take some time to explore other neighborhoods and meet longtime D.C. residents. You’ll find that the District is so much richer and more colorful than the C-SPAN live stream.
Please tell us more about your current position.
Drafting policy briefs, facilitating research projects.
What has been your general career path?
Become a tenure-track assistant professor in a university
How has being an Archer Fellow influenced your professional path and goals?
A three-month internship as an Archer Fellow in D.C. has helped me to form my dissertation topic that can bridge research and practice together. The Archer Graduate Program has also helped me to be certain about my career goals.
What do you value the most about your experience as an Archer Fellow?
I value the most about my experience in D.C. as an Archer Fellow is that the Graduate Program served as a key to a door of opportunities to networking, learning, and demystifying federal and national organizations and practitioners in Public Policy. Prior to an internship with a civil rights organization—Advancement Project, I could only contribute my passion to issues of school-to-prison pipeline on academic papers and conferences. The three-month internship has taken my passion to action. Meeting with like-minded practitioners, attorneys, and leaders, I finally feel like a member of change instead of a member of problem in the society. I could never view public policies the same way as in the past. Without the experience as an Archer Fellow, I could not continue the work I am dedicated to do in academia and in practice.
What was the most important thing you learned as an Archer Fellow?
I learned that D.C. is a place that put individual’s talent and passion to a right place.
What do you value the most about being an Archer Alumna?
I value the most is to continue being part of the Archer network. As an Archer alumna, I can always connect with other alumni wherever I go. It is also very empowering and aspiring to see my work during the D.C. internship is still making an impact on the society. To be able to contribute and support future Archers and expend my network with like-minded individuals is the biggest asset that being an Archer Alumni has brought to my life.
What is your favorite memory from the program?
My favorite moment is when my intern team submitted our final legal document to the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education. The Office decided to open an investigation as a civic matter to a school district.
Do you have advice for prospective students?
Do not let obstacles or fear discourage you to become an Archer Fellow. The Archer Center has great resources to support any challenges you may have from the beginning to the end of your internship. If your field of work is related to public policy, you should definitely become an Archer Fellow. It will help you to accomplish your goals out-side of your academic field and will put your skills and expertise into a good use. Most importantly, it provides valuable human capital that will help your career unexpectedly for a very long time.
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Greater Philadelphia Region. My organization has a wealth of available data, and my job is to help transform those datasets into practical and actionable insights. Some of these projects include prioritizing areas of need for transit and transportation investment, forecasting the region’s future land use, and evaluating the accuracy of our existing analysis approaches. Every day requires another tool in my spatial statistics and programming toolkit.
What has been your general career path?
Early in my undergraduate career, I was surprised to score a 103 in my introduction to statistics course. I served as a peer instructor for the course until graduation. Meanwhile, the rest of my undergraduate education focused on studying political institutions in the international context. I had a hunch that my love for statistics could somehow combine with my interest in politics. In the subsequent years, my career has been situated in that sweet spot, applying data analysis to public policy.
How has being an Archer Fellow influenced your professional path and goals?
Because of the Archer Center Graduate Program in Public Policy, I jumped feet-first into the deep end of public policy. My internship in D.C. focused on affordable housing development in the District, and my only background on the subject was the policy brief I had written for my Archer Center application. Three months later, I was intimately familiar with housing policy, funding mechanisms, and important political actors in D.C. and at the federal level. In my current position, I am swimming in an ocean of unfamiliar transit and transportation-related acronyms, but because of the Archer Program, I am invigorated by and unafraid of the challenge.
What do you value the most about your experience as an Archer Fellow?
D.C. is a place unlike any other: there, it’s actually cool to be a policy wonk. I was inspired by the examples of my mentors at work and at the Archer Center to embrace my nerdy inner data scientist. The conversations I began in D.C. continue to this day, including sharing research ideas and technical guidance. Though I now reside a few states away, it’s like I never left. The Graduate Program in Public Policy enhanced the quality of my work, but more importantly, it shaped my professional persona.
What was the most important thing you learned as an Archer Fellow?
First things first: I am an undeniable introvert. Before the Archer Program, I wasted a lot of time and mental energy worrying about emailing that professor or calling the veterinarian. During my summer as a Graduate Fellow, the program faculty and staff encouraged us to connect with other people in the District, and I witnessed my fearless cohort of Archer Fellows get out and network every day. As an Archer Fellow, I learned to transcend my mental stumbling block and communicate effectively.
What do you value the most about being an Archer Alumna?
Take your pick of any major U.S. city, and you’ll find a network of Archer Center alumni there—people who share your interests and are willing to offer help and advice any way they can. For example, I recently met a fellow data nerd at an Archer Fellow alumni coffee and networking event. We discussed interactive web mapping for hours. Later, at my master’s degree defense, I employed the web mapping techniques I learned about at that informal get-together. My faculty and peers were blown away. This is just one example of how the Graduate Program in Public Policy keeps on giving.
What is your favorite memory from the program?
There is nothing like living up and down the stairs from your program cohort. I love to share the joy of cooking, so I invited everyone over for dinner cooked by yours truly. After about a week of planning and prep, including hauling specialty ingredients and a 10-pound bag of rice on the Metro from the suburb of Hyattsville back to D.C., dinner was served. The apartment was alive with conversation for hours. My main point of pride: cooking for twenty-two with only one sharp knife.
Do you have advice for prospective students?
D.C. is more than an agglomeration of federal buildings and federal employees. It’s a unique place, essentially its own small state, with its own quirky history and activist culture. Take some time to explore other neighborhoods and meet longtime D.C. residents. You’ll find that the District is so much richer and more colorful than the C-SPAN live stream.
