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The challenge welcomed 45 students and 16 teams, immersing them in the arena of public policy. Their goal was to construct compelling, viable, and persuasive policy recommendations.

Students worked in teams of two to three, with each team guided by a staff or faculty mentor. The teams competed for cash prizes from a pool of $10,000.

This year, Georgia Tsakos ’24, Loreto Galvan-Alva ’25, and Vasilisa Vasilyeva ’25 secured first place with their proposal “Wheels to Wellness: Illinois Mobile Outreach and Overdose Program.”

“Winning hasn’t fully set in for me yet. I think maybe because it still feels so surreal, but I also think I am just not ready to part ways with my groupmates. I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with my teammates, crafting our proposed policy through interviews, research, and data analysis,” said Galvan-Alva.

Judging was based on the quality of the team’s analysis and presentation, how well it supported its recommendation, and the overall command of the subject the team chose to address.

“Although our group won, our work is still not done. With the excellent feedback we have received from our mentor, judges, and community leaders, we still have a lot of room to improve our proposal and bring it forth to the policymakers themselves,” said Tsakos.

The final round of competition was decided by a panel of expert judges which included City of Chicago Alderman (2nd Ward) Brian Hopkins, Executive Director of the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center, Chair of the Illinois Children’s Justice Task Force Char Rivette, General Counsel and Senior Vice President for Re-entry Services at the Safer Foundation Sodiqa Williams, and Licensed-Eligible Psychologist and Board Member at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (Illinois Chapter) Dr. Dimple Patel.

Renowned public policy expert David Castagnetti ’84 served as the emcee for the event. Castagnetti serves on the board at John McCormack Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Before joining the private sector, Castagnetti served as Chief of Staff to two committee chairmen, Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) of the Senate Finance Committee, and Congressman Norm Mineta (D-CA) of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, contributing to some of the most important policy advancements in the areas of trade, tax, transportation, and technology.

The Public Policy Analysis Challenge supports the public policy program’s commitment to analysis and a nonpartisan approach to educating students on policy issues.

“I am extremely grateful for this program fostering the opportunity for students to learn about policymaking and to excel. Upon submitting our white paper, I was proud of all the students in this challenge who completed their proposals. I felt like I was already among winners knowing how much effort everyone put into this challenge,” added Tsakos.

The public policy program promotes an in-depth understanding of the complexity of policy making, potential options, benefits and trade-offs, as well as a strong commitment to data-informed solutions.

"Our mission in public policy studies is to have our students engage with policymakers to create sustainable solutions to real-world challenges.  We like to think of the annual Challenge as Shark Tank meets CSPAN, with teams pitching their proposals to officials who have the ability to enact the change," said Politics Instructor and Public Policy Studies Coordinator Christine Walker.

The topic for the 2025 Public Policy Analysis Challenge is "Addressing Addiction".