Public affairs professor helps bring global student simulation competition fully online
Transformation helped attract undergraduates to previously all-grad-student contest; this year’s topic was facing a global pandemic
Image by congerdesign on Pixabay
When calamity strikes, communities turn to public officials for leadership, answers and above all, solutions. ASU public affairs students joined their peers from across the nation to test how they might react as leaders in an annual global competition held this month.
The Student Simulation Competition is sponsored by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs and Administration, known as NASPAA. It went from a mostly in-person experience to a completely online one in 2025. Yushim Kim, an ASU public affairs associate professor, served on the panel that retooled the contest to attract undergraduates to an experience previously only open to graduate students.
Dani Koch and Ian Boarnet, two ASU Online students who participated, said the experience of meeting the daunting challenges of a simulated, worldwide pandemic felt much like the real thing and offered insights they could apply to their future careers.
Globally, this year 200 students in 60 teams from nearly 100 universities competed at seven competition sites, including ASU. Twenty-four students from across the nation, including five from ASU, competed at the ASU site on March 1. Teams of five or six students assumed fictional positions like that of Cabinet secretaries in the U.S., leading areas such as a department of finance or public health.
Retooling to online attracted ASU students
Kim, of the School of Public Affairs, was a member of an eight-member faculty advisory committee that shaped the competition into an entirely virtual one. Next year, Kim will serve a third year on the NASPAA committee.
The online conversion was successful in attracting ASU students, Kim said.
“In a half a day, I got all five, and many others also asked to participate,” she said.
NASPAA will decide whether to open next year’s competition to more students, with funding to support it, Kim said.
Teams that survived the March competitions will face off against others worldwide, with a global champion decided in April, she said.
Two years ago, one of Kim’s students was a member of a team that triumphed in the global competition. Ethan Clay, a wildlife firefighter, and his team mastered a simulation in which students created a community wildfire protection plan.
Clay earned a Master of Public Policy degree in May 2023 and today is a wildland firefighter in Montana.
In 2023 the students took on roles of a typical American region as municipal and county leaders working to contain a massive wildfire. This year’s challenge was a global pandemic spreading across border after border.
Students find experience close to ‘real world’
ASU did not advance to the global level of the competition this year. Students Dani Koch and Ian Boarnet said they found the experience richly rewarding despite having left sooner than planned.
Koch, a first-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Science degree in program evaluation and data analysis, said she joined the competition to network with peers and help her decide on a career in policy.
“I think the collaboration needed for the simulation was very similar to the collaboration needed in real life,” Koch said. “Even the technical difficulties we experienced could be related to the unexpected issues that could occur in the real world.”
Koch said she was surprised at how easily she assumed a leadership position, as before the competition she didn't know if she had what it takes to work or lead in political matters.
She said clear communication and collaboration skills are by far the most important in a career in public affairs.
Boarnet, a third-year undergraduate who is pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in public service and public policy with a minor in statistics, said he learned two important lessons: how teamwork can make or break an effort, and how quickly the world changes, as evidenced by changes students faced in the competition.
“It felt like we could never stay ahead of the problem,” he said, adding that he was surprised at “how quickly our plans went out the window. We had a very solid plan in the beginning but just minutes in we had to change it. The plan kept changing after that.”
Boarnet said he learned he was able to think on his feet about policy issues.
“Before this experience I have always had days to write essays and form opinions,” he said.
The School of Public Affairs is part of the Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions.