---
title: Do you want to make a greater difference in society?
description: Advance your public decision-making talents and abilities — locally, statewide, nationally, globally
image: https://blog.fitchburgstate.edu/hubfs/GCE/Spero_Govt_Institute_Aug08.jpg
---

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## [Do you want to make a greater difference in society? ](https://blog.fitchburgstate.edu/gce/do-you-want-to-make-a-greater-difference-in-society)

Posted by [Kelly Norris](https://blog.fitchburgstate.edu/gce/author/kelly-norris) on June 3, 2015 at 10:03 AM

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**Advance your public decision-making talents and abilities — locally, statewide, nationally, globally**

Join us this July for our challenging week’s worth of **guest speakers, simulation crisis management games, and career advancing skills** at the Government Decision-making Institute. We’ll help you build your strategic and scenario planning capabilities more effectively for prioritizing, managing crises, and tackling conflicts.

![Spero_Govt_Institute_Aug08](https://blog.fitchburgstate.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/GCE/Spero_Govt_Institute_Aug08.jpg?width=538&name=Spero_Govt_Institute_Aug08.jpg)

[Political Science](https://www.fitchburgstate.edu/academics/undergraduate-day-programs/political-science/) professors Joshua Spero and Shane Martin welcome you to become a more essential part of society in an exciting, cutting-edge, and behind-the-scenes learning environment enriching your grasp of public policies and practices. **This institute is for:**  

- students
- teachers
- public policymakers
- corporate planners
- organizational strategists

The **benefits of and opportunities** for learning with us at the Decision-making Institute enable you to:

- Better understand the latest changes and linkages for governing at the local, state, national, and international levels — governing that impacts us as individuals and as key parts of society;
- Hone briefing capabilities, build negotiation techniques, and improve critical thinking for strategic and scenario planning and cost-benefit analysis;
- Increase efforts to bridge the divide between public policy considerations and private sector bottom-line approaches.

We’ll help you **determine more insightfully, critically, and constructively as you role-play advisers to some of the top public Massachusetts and federal level policymakers** confronting simulated crises on:**   
**

- Public safety
- Economic development
- Energy effectiveness 
- Environment and climate change
- Homeland security and defense

We’ll learn lessons together to develop greater appreciation for the complexities of how scholars understand ideas and policymakers prioritize, plan, and implement public policy — and how we might better understand the decisions to be made in the early twenty-first century.

**The Instructors**

![Spero_FSC_Pic_My06](https://blog.fitchburgstate.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/GCE/Spero_FSC_Pic_My06.jpg?width=199&name=Spero_FSC_Pic_My06.jpg) Professor Joshua Spero has taught courses in government decision-making, American foreign policy, and international relations, and has written a book and numerous articles on crisis management and conflict prevention, particularly on middle power politics. Please contact [Professor Spero](mailto:jspero@fitchburgstate.edu) if you have any questions.

![shanemartin](https://blog.fitchburgstate.edu/hs-fs/hubfs/GCE/shanemartin.jpg?width=170&name=shanemartin.jpg)

 

[Professor Shane Martin](mailto:sjmartin@fitchburgstate.edu), has taught courses in government decision-making, American politics, state and urban government, and various speech communication and rhetoric classes and techniques. 

 

**[![Register today](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/376696/378c1d75-0020-4e1c-b3d7-fff42873cf95.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/376696/378c1d75-0020-4e1c-b3d7-fff42873cf95) **

**

The course begins on July 13.**   
**Register by June 25 to avoid the $50 registration fee.**

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