Student Consulting Lab

Student Consulting Lab project placards lined up on a wall from 2024-25 projects

The Student Consulting Lab is a collaboration between small teams of Evans School students, their faculty advisors, and our public, private, and nonprofit partners to co-create solutions to policy and organizational problems.

We are proud that this program has built organizational capacity for more than 20 years with support from our MPA students. We have delivered powerful recommendations for organizations and improved equitable outcomes for everyone in our shared community.

Learn more about our talented students, the features of a great project proposal, how to work collaboratively with student and faculty teams, and our role in setting both our students and our partners up for success.

We are no longer accepting applications for 2024-25 projects.

Have a project idea or interested in learning more about the Student Consulting Lab program? Fill out to form below.

Interest Form

How It Works

Under the guidance of faculty advisors, teams of three to five  skilled, second-year Master of Public Administration (MPA) students dedicate approximately 10-12 hours per week to their selected projects over a five-month period.

Participation in the Student Consulting Lab includes a project fee of $2,500. If the project fee is a financial barrier to participation we also provide fee waivers, which can be requested through the proposal form.

Student Consulting Labs - Process Flow (2)

Hear From Our Partners

“This was an exceptional team. I have worked with teams the last 5 years and they get better every single year.”

Sego Jackson, Strategic Advisor, Waste Prevention and Product Stewardship, Seattle Public Utilities (2020-2021 Capstone Client)

“We couldn’t have asked for a better team. The team clearly communicated scope and schedule and stuck to it…The team really went the extra mile by giving extra presentations to King County Metro’s Commute Trip Reduction stakeholders and the City of Shoreline’s Planning Commission.”

Nora Daley-Peng, Senior Transportation Planner, City of Shoreline (2020-2021 Capstone Client)

“Overall, this was a positive experience. I believe our project had a great balance of data/statistical evaluation along with policy evaluation and the topic was meaningful which made it a mutually beneficial endeavor. The team was professional, curious, and wrote an excellent academic paper. Their final presentation was a great summary of a complex topic.”

Sarah Olson, Deputy Director, Lynnwood Parks, Recreation & Cultural Arts (2020-2021 Capstone Client)

“It is a great program. The amount of value we received for the cost is incredible. I wished I could have hired the student team to work for me full time! They are of the highest caliber team.”

Jessica Engel, Water Quality Planner, King County (2019-2020 Capstone Client)

“[T]he team was phenomenal! They delivered a solid set of recommendations and best practices for how to program cultural space with a racial equity and social justice lens.”

Mytoan Nguyen-Akbar, Impact and Assessment Manager, City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (2017-2018 Capstone Client)