University of Richmond senior receives scholarship to study social policy at Oxford

Jacob Schumer has a lot to celebrate as he prepares for Commencement this Sunday: The University of Richmond senior recently learned of his selection as a Jepson Scholar, which comes with an all-expenses-paid scholarship to cover his master’s program in comparative social policy at the University of Oxford. His undergraduate internships and classes paved his way to the renowned British university, he said. In particular, he noted his Jepson School of Leadership Studies internship with the House Ways and Means Committee this past summer.

Schumer recalled when, on May 14, 2025, the House Ways and Means Committee voted along party lines to advance the Trump administration’s massive tax-and-spending bill, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” When he started his internship with the Democratic staff of the U.S. House of Representatives' chief tax-writing committee a week later, Democratic representatives were still shell shocked, he said. He quickly became immersed in national policy.

“I conducted healthcare-related research, created graphs, and wrote public awareness memos about the bill,” said the leadership studies and political science major. “I read letters from hospitals and patient advocacy organizations and highlighted quotes and stories about people with disabilities who would lose their Medicaid coverage if the bill passed.”

U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., gave a presentation that made a particularly strong impression on him, Schumer said.

“Congressman Horsford pointed to large posters that showed the numbers of people in his district who would be unable to afford health insurance when their Affordable Care Act tax credits lapsed if the bill passed,” the senior said. “His speech made me understand the damage the bill would do in his district and around the country.”

Ultimately, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed, and President Donald Trump signed it into law on July 4. Although Schumer opposed the passage of the bill, his summer internship nevertheless affirmed his desire to work in the policy field.

He said he first became interested in policy during his sophomore year while taking the leadership studies class Justice and Civil Society with Dr. Julian Hayter. “We learned about the effect of inequitable urban-planning policies on cities like Richmond,” Schumer said. “The class helped me understand how making policies without any representation of marginalized people can be so damaging.”   

It also inspired him to find an internship in the policy realm. The summer after his sophomore year, he interned with the lobbying firm Tiber Creek Group, in Washington, D.C., where he researched U.S. healthcare and labor policy.

“Working for a lobbying firm was a great experience,” Schumer said, “but I decided I wanted to be in the middle of policy creation. My contacts at Tiber helped connect me to my internship with the House Ways and Means Committee the following summer.”

Last semester, the aspiring policy wonk wrote a paper on “Medicare for All,” a movement to provide universal healthcare in the United States, for his political science senior seminar with Dr. Dana El Kurd. “Single-payer universal healthcare would be an ideal system to work toward,” he said, “but we’ve moved in the opposite direction in the past year.”

Now the-soon-to-be-Richmond graduate eagerly anticipates studying comparative social policy at Oxford, beginning this fall.

“I would like to do a mix of policy research and communication, focusing on telehealth and patient care,” he said. “I want to see how other nations have instituted successful social safety nets and bring that knowledge back to the U.S.”