University of Oregon Master's student Joe McAndrew was recently awarded an Eno fellowship and invited to participate in the 2013 Eno Leadership Development Conference.

The fellowship is an extraordinary opportunity for students on a career track to become transportation policymakers. Only 20 fellows nationwide are chosen each year, and only one student from each university transportation program can be nominated by their school. McAndrew attended the 21st annual conference in Washington, D.C. from June 2 to 6, all expenses paid.

"It was fabulous," said the second-year planning student from UO. In the course of the four-day conference he was able to attend a variety of panels and events, but said that for him, "the true highlight was just the people that we were able to meet."

Conference attendees included "high-level officials, executive directors from all sectors and levels of government," McAndrew said, "from the freight industry, which included trucks, rail, and port; to the airline industry, to Capitol Hill staffers... we also met with the executive directors from Parsons-Brinckerhoff, AASHTO and the like. It was an all-encompassing opportunity."

The Eno Center for Transportation is a non-partisan "think-tank" that promotes policy innovation in the field of transportation planning.

The goal of the Leadership Development Conference is to cultivate the next generation of leaders in all modes of transportation. During the conference, Eno fellows present their own research to a panel of transportation professionals, and also meet with top government officials, leaders of businesses and nonprofits, and members of Congress and their staff.

Following the conference, which was a whirlwind of meetings and events, Joe ended up staying for an extra day in D.C. to meet with senior officials from the Office of the U.S. DOT Secretary and the Federal Transit Administration. The whole experience, he said, was an eye-opener.

McAndrew is the fourth Eno fellow in seven years from the UO Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management. Past Eno fellows from UO include 2011 OTREC student of the year Cortney Mild.

Marc Schlossberg, OTREC/NITC executive committee member at U of O and faculty advisor for student transportation group LiveMove (of which Joe McAndrew is currently president), has called it "amazing" that so many Eno fellows are arising from a university that doesn't have a transportation-specific program of study. In a UO news story about the fellowship, Schlossberg said, "This record perfectly illustrates a strength of the UO - connecting classroom learning, applied experiences, and a commitment to social change.”