Professional Certificate in Public Administration and Law

My name is Lisa Koivula and I have been at York for quite sometime now and have very much enjoyed my entire experience. Like many high school students entering university I was unsure which program I wanted to pursue. I entered university as an undeclared major to get a feel for university and to better understand what my specific interests were before committing to a major. I have always had an interest in the law and after many of my first year courses around the subject were extremely interesting, I decided to declare my major as Law and Society. After taking many Women’s Studies courses in my second year, I then decided to also minor in the subject because the issues that surround gender within the law were of particular interest to me.

After completing my B.A. I was still surprisingly not ready to leave York! I wanted to expand my knowledge with something that was new but also complementary to my undergraduate degree. I researched many certificate programs and the Public Administration and Law certificate within the School of Public Policy and Administration, obviously stood out to me. Having touched on public policy and administration throughout my undergraduate career I believed this would be a great fit for me. I was right! I thoroughly enjoyed the certificate program and it provided me with a whole new aspect of knowledge on public administration and policy that I had not received in my undergraduate career. All of the courses were informative and have given me new valuable insight into how the law and public administration interact with one another. The certificate helped expand the broader picture of how these institutions work with one another and how on minor and major scales individuals within the public sector can work to improve Canadian society as a whole. Having been taught about many of the negative aspects within the law, it was very interesting to see how public administration and policy can be used to help remedy these issues.

Unfortunately I was never very involved in any on-campus student activities. I like many students had to work throughout my university career and didn’t think at the time it was a major priority. If I could go back, I would most definitely make some time even if it was only once a month to get involved! Those experiences are valuable for a number of reasons and are always something you can add to your resume.

If you are looking to get a foot in the door career-wise with Ontario Public Service, there is the Summer Student Experience program which students can apply to and work full time for the summer within various ministries. This is how I got into my first OPS job and have since then been brought back on several different contracts. Like everyone, I hope to get a full time job but am also considering eventually pursuing a Master’s possibly in Public Policy, Administration and Law as I feel there is always so much more to learn and experience! - Lisa Koivula