I was a Cornell government major, Class of 1985. I had the privilege of taking two classes with Professor Lowi, Intro to American Government and a Government and Public Policy seminar for which I can still remember writing an analysis of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, a life-changing paper for me as it helped me realize what I wanted to do. Following that class and with Professor Lowi’s encouragement, I spent my final semester at Cornell in Washington.
Looking back on my Cornell years, it was a thrilling time to be a government major! While I know this is a tribute to the energetic, rock-star charismatic and brilliant Professor Lowi, I realize that I benefited from being surrounded by a team of incredible professors.
From Professor Kramnick, I found a passion for political thought. Every lecture he gave was met with spontaneous applause, including a particularly noteworthy one on Bourgeois Radicalism: Mozart and Tom Paine.
From my advisor, Peter Katzenstein, I learned about academic honesty and discipline, [and] developed a lifelong interest in worker adjustment policies. Thanks to Professor Katzenstein and his America in the World Economy course, I got hooked on the issue of how America responds to worker dislocation compared to what other countries do. Through him, I received a grant to spend time in West Virginia at Weirton Steel, which was able to use employee ownership as an alternative to shutting down. (Of course, as part of my research, I met with Cornell ILR professors who were the country’s acknowledged ESOP experts.)
There were economics, comparative politics, international relations, and history classes I could detail as well (especially Professor LaFeber’s History of American Foreign Policy). I loved it all.
But thanks to Professor Lowi, I had a hunch I was destined to be involved in government and public policy. Once he helped me decide to do Cornell in Washington, I interned at the National Governors Association working primarily on dislocated worker issues, and then stayed at NGA after I graduated. Eventually this work took me to Hungary, where I lived for eight years and ran a USAID-funded project to help the Hungarian government develop methods to cope with layoffs occurring during the transition years. It was an incredible experience which allowed me to spend time at uranium and coal mines, steel mills, food processing plants, and with the Hungarian Army. I can trace much of my success back to my Cornell education.
For the past 12 years, I have worked as a senior researcher at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, where I am running a program to help long-term unemployed job seekers and [also] providing input to New Jersey’s new governor on a range of workforce and education topics. What I learned from Professor Lowi about American politics and policy analysis has influenced my thinking and my work ever since, including how to take a stand and support it with evidence.
Thank you, Professor Lowi, and thank you, Cornell.
(Professor Kramnick, you will not remember me, as I graduated in 1985, but I sat in the front row of your Modern Ideologies class and loved every minute of it!)
Maria T. Heidkamp
Director, New Start Career Network, and
Senior Researcher, Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University
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