Ohio State University Students partner with the Federal Communications Commission

Tackling a critical issue for the FCC’s work on connectivity across the United States 

Students participating in the Office of Student Life’s Buckeye Leadership Fellows Program (BLF) will work on filling critical data gaps in a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) database.   As part of their Fall Semester Senior Leadership Challenge, BLF students will consider an update to the FCC’s Federal Universal Service Program’s Map of Fiber Connectivity to Schools and Libraries.

This challenge will require students to develop a creative and innovative solution to individually contact thousands of schools and libraries to retrieve their connectivity data or develop an online tool that school and library administrators could use to update data on their own.  The students will also investigate other ways to successfully satisfy the FCC’s requirements.

BLF’s Leadership Challenges use a “Problem Based Learning” model to train students on how to understand and process complex issues and problems that may not have a clear answer.  Over a dozen leadership challenges have been completed by BLF students in partnership with a variety of business, non-profits and other agencies.  This challenge marks the first time the program has engaged with the federal government.

The idea of working with the FCC came from spending time with the Commission Chairman and Ohio State alumnus Tom Wheeler after a policy talk he delivered on campus in December of last year. 

“Chairman Wheeler was familiar with the Buckeye Leadership Fellows Program and was interested in the idea of getting students exposed to the agency,” said Edward Pauline, director of the program.  “He is particularly excited to have contributions from public-service minded groups outside Washington that address some of the FCC’s pressing practical problems and he hopes our students’ effort will be one of many such creative and collaborative projects in the FCC’s future.  Since meeting with Chairman Wheeler, we have talked with staff members at the FCC to seek a unique way that students could get meaningful exposure to the work of the agency, further develop their problem solving abilities, and build their potential as leaders.”

Outcomes of the leadership challenge include:

• Understanding the work of the Federal Communications Commission
• Engaging in effective consulting work
• Practicing positive group behaviors: setting expectations, goal setting, teamwork, follow-through, proactive communication, giving and receiving constructive feedback
• Learning to navigate an ambiguous, ill-structured problem and create feasible solutions to solve it
• Composing and delivering a presentation that presents the result to the FCC and explaining how it addresses its needs
• Building an understanding of the FCC, the Federal Universal Service Program, and the national communications community

About the Buckeye Leadership Fellows Program

The Buckeye Leadership Fellows Program is the premier leadership development experience within the Office of Student Life at Ohio State. This rigorous, two-year, multidisciplinary cohort program takes undergraduate students through intensive personal, professional, and leadership development experiences and is powered, funded, and programmed by Ohio State alumni, community supporters, and the Office of Student Life.  For more information, please visit www.blf.osu.edu.