Congratulations to John Henry Jackson for being selected as Public Administration and Policy’s MPA Student of the Month!

John Henry Jackson grew up in the Winston-Salem, North Carolina area, and is the oldest of four boys. He was the valedictorian of his high school in addition to leading them to multiple state championships in academic competitions. He then attended High Point University and graduated summa cum laude with a double major in Political Science and International Relations and an Economics minor in only two and a half years. While there, he worked for CNN at the 2016 Republican & Democratic National Conventions, studied abroad in Austria for a semester, interned for the Town of Lewisville, and worked part-time throughout. He also led the university’s quiz bowl team to a 3rd place finish in the Big South tournament, where he was named MVP by the conference. Following graduation, John Henry interned for a U.S. Congressmember’s office in Washington, D.C. before returning to Winston-Salem to work on a U.S. congressional campaign in the summer of 2018.

John Henry is currently in his second year of the MPA program here at the University of Georgia. He spent his first year in the program as a teaching assistant for Introduction to American Government. Over the summer, he completed an internship with the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he worked on the Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS). ARMS is a complicated, multistage, nationally representative survey that serves as the primary source of information regarding the financial health and production practices of American farmers. Data from ARMS is also used to calculate the farm portion of U.S. GDP (gross domestic product). In addition to his studies, John Henry is currently working as a research assistant to Dr. Whitford.

Congratulations John Henry! All of these amazing accomplishments add up to something amazing and you are just getting started.