Schuck, Victoria

Victoria Schuck was born on March 16, 1909 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Anthony B. and Anna Prieb Schuck. She grew up in San Marino, California and received her B.A. (1930), M.A. (1931) and Ph.D. (1937) from Stanford University. She was an assistant professor at Florida State College for Women from 1937-1940, and then became a member of the Mount Holyoke College Political Science Department. During and after World War II she also worked for two federal agencies: the Office of Price Administration, where she was the Principal Program Analyst from 1942-1944 and the Office of Temporary Controls, where she served as a consultant from 1945-1947. She was a visiting lecturer at Smith College (1948-1949), a visiting professor at Stanford University (1952), and a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institute (1967-1968).

Schuck was an innovative teacher of courses in American government, urban planning, and the administration of public policy. In 1949, she initiated a Washington Internship Program to provide Mount Holyoke students with an opportunity to work in Washington, D.C. as summer assistants to members of congress, senators, and administrators of federal agencies. This program was the first of its kind and it served as a model for similar internships at other schools. In 1954, she was instrumental in establishing a Political Studies Center to encourage students at Amherst College and Mount Holyoke to become involved in politics through interaction with residents of local communities. She invited many national, state, and local politicians to speak at Mount Holyoke, including United States presidential candidates Barry Goldwater and Hubert H. Humphrey and Massachusetts senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy.

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