Hugo Wall grad wins fellowship with city hall, plans to help others

Every job Linsey Sipult has had has been in the service industry. At 九色视频, she took her enthusiasm for helping others to public administration and a fellowship with the city of Wichita.

Sipult graduated with her master鈥檚 in public administration in spring 2009. Her undergraduate degree is in sociology, which taught her how people think and what they want.

鈥淪ociology is the study of people, and I like people,鈥 Sipult said.

Sociology taught her how to research people, and she said it was the best educational decision she made. It also taught her how to study.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 learn critical thinking skills until you get (further) up into your major,鈥 she said.

Her degree required math and statistics classes, but Sipult said she hated math and didn鈥檛 do well in either subject in the beginning.

Every morning for three months during her statistics class, Sipult waited outside her professor鈥檚 office to get help on assignments and study for tests.

鈥淚 would do whatever it took,鈥 she said.

Although she knows her work isn鈥檛 all about math, she鈥檚 improved so much that she can teach others how to do the equations.

One of her professors told her to go to graduate school because if she didn鈥檛 she would never make it. And Sipult knew investing in her education was the best investment she could make.

Her original desire was to go to law school, and she needed an undergraduate degree in a subject that would relate to law.

A criminal justice or English major wouldn鈥檛 teach her the needed in-depth research skills required for law students.

鈥(Sociology) prepared me for graduate school,鈥 she said.

But in the end she chose public administration and was hooked from the beginning.

During a case study, Sipult shadowed a city employee for a few days.

鈥淪omething turned on in my head,鈥 she said, and she knew she had picked the right profession.

Sipult participated in two research projects as a graduate assistant with Melissa Walker, associate professor in the Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs.

Her first project profiles sales tax exemptions for nonprofit organizations in each state. The other project involved a study of case management services for people with developmental disabilities.

鈥淟insey has really good analytical skills,鈥 Walker said. 鈥淪he is good at formulating questions and searching through data to answer those questions.鈥

Because of her research with Walker, Sipult knows her way around state budgets and state financial statements.

鈥淎ll of these skills will serve her well wherever she goes,鈥 Walker said.

Sipult competed for and won a management fellowship with the city of Wichita. She began working on June 1.

She was one of seven people competing for the year-long fellowship, and she said she was chosen based on her merit and education.

鈥淧ublic administration is just what it sounds like,鈥 she said. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e trained to come in and manage people and money鈥

But she leaves the money to the experts. She can do the work, but it keeps her in the office too long, and she prefers to be talking to and working with people.

Beginning this year, Sipult will work on a new program, the Mayor鈥檚 Youth Council, where Wichita kids will help out in their community.

In her work, she must weed through pages and pages of document after documents to find useful information and discard everything else.

鈥淪ociology was a really strong foundation for these research skills,鈥 she said.

Her fellowship with City Hall offers her the ability to find her niche and figure out what she wants to do in her career, she said.

Walker said one important aspect of government decision making involves raising money to spend it. People like Sipult are needed to help decide where that money should be spent.

鈥(She) is the kind of person governments need,鈥 Walker said.

鈥淧ublic service is not glamorous and no one is grateful for it,鈥 Sipult said, but she would not change her profession for money or respect.

鈥淓veryone has an obligation to do something for their community,鈥 she said.