Johnson and Kelley’s Sidewalk Scholars Wins Best Public Policy Capstone Design

Posted May 1, 2017

On Tuesday, April 25, at the McCamish Pavilion, five Public Policy student teams competed in Georgia Tech’s spring 2017 Capstone Design expo. The award for Best Public Policy Project went to Reagan Johnson and Maggie Kelley for their project Sidewalk Scholars: Safe Routes to School Program Analysis.

The largest expo to date, the 2017 Expo showcased the work of 1,222 graduating seniors, working in 242 teams on client projects to solve real world problems. The students came from public policy, seven engineering schools, architecture, and industrial design. The teams presented their work to industry representatives, faculty, staff, and students, who judged best project awards.

For Sidewalk Scholars, Johnson and Kelley interviewed participants in TAG Academy’s safe routes to school program looking at what worked and how the program could be improved. 

The other public policy teams were:

Creative Cribs, looking at affordable housing for artists for the Atlanta Regional Commission – Megan Haley, Hether Johnston, Charlotte Kaye, Helen Petersen and Sana Surani

Students on the Move – Making Decatur Greater, comparing academic achievement, attendance and discipline for students transferring into the Decatur school district with students who began in the district – Mahdi Al Husseini, Alice Barsky, Len Berg, Ethan Eloguin, Kyle Norton.

GT Treecycling, analyzing how GT could make better use of the trees it cuts down – Ana de Give, Christina Herd, Sean Hodell, Leo Ludwig, Hunter Tredway

Safe Routes and Social Capital, interviewed participants in Whitefoord Elementary’s safe routes to school program to see what worked and how the program could be improved.