GovernmentExecutive.com

Colleges and career centers that want to provide their students with more information about job and internship opportunities in government face challenges, representatives from some of the schools in the Partnership for Public Service's Call to Serve program said at a conference last week. But both the schools and the Partnership are optimistic about the program's potential and growth.

The conference helped five Call to Serve schools that recently received $3,000 grants from the Partnership strategize about how to launch Making the Difference, an education campaign about public service. The grantees include the State University of New York at Albany; Brown University; California State University, Sacramento; Washington University in St. Louis; and Western Michigan University.

"Making the Difference will make sure students are aware of these opportunities and will help connect students to young feds already in service so they can get the real scoop on government service," said Max Stier, president and chief executive officer of the Partnership for Public Service in Washington.

During brainstorming sessions, participants said they needed to deal with negative perceptions of government by students and their parents. Those impressions sometimes are reinforced by the complexities of the federal hiring process, which hobbles students who have to make quick decisions about summer internships or full-time jobs.

The schools' representatives also said they felt they needed to make public service stand out from other opportunities, in part by making clear the variety of jobs available in government, connections between students' academic interests and agency work, and financial benefits like loan repayment programs.

In addition, the schools noted that they had many opportunities to reach out to students through existing programs such as career days, handbooks, e-mails and faculty advisers, and could incorporate information about federal employment in training programs, classes and admissions information.

Tim McManus, the Partnership's vice president for education and outreach, said conference participants reached the conclusion that "they really need to be strategic and prioritize where they put their efforts.

"It's easy for colleges and universities to look at the number of activities first and then look at the impact, rather than stepping back and saying, 'let's focus on three activities or three types of efforts that would get some bang for the buck,' " McManus said.

Brad Golson, associate manager for education and outreach, said he felt the conference built a sense of unity as well as a sense of the scale of the project.

"We walked away with a team," Golson said. "We walked away feeling we are in this together; this is a community we're building. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it wasn't built by one person."

McManus said that sense of community would be particularly helpful as the Call to Serve grantee schools go through the next steps in the campaign, including revising outreach plans, working with Partnership staffers and launching programming tailored to each campus. Ultimately, he said, he hoped that the collaboration between the schools would become self-sustaining.

"Our goal is to continue to build that Call to Serve network so it's not schools calling us, it's schools calling each other," Golson said.

COMMENTS

• I'm not talking about getting rich Patrick. I'm talking about making enough money to pay all of your bills, contribute about 5% of each check to retirement and have some money saved aside for unexpected financial emergencies. I don't consider being able to accomplish those objectives to be rich. Even if you start as a GS-7 and have $60,000 in student loans and are single with no savings, $39,000 isn't a lot of money to live in a city like D.C. if that's your sole source of support. I actually applied for the loan forgiveness program at my agency. While the amount helped and I'm grateful, the amount they awarded me barely makes a dent in my overall debt. The other thing is that my agency makes decisions on a year to year basis regarding who is going to get loan forgiveness money. My agency doesn't offer any program where you get a certain amount of debt forgiven if you work for the agency for x number of years. KH Posted February 20, 2008 2:33 PM
• KH, I think there are federal agencies that offer student loan repayment programs. Not that that makes a GS-5 salary any more enticing. We are talking about college graduates, though. BB Posted February 14, 2008 11:25 AM
• RL, I sincerely feel for your daughter's difficult time finding a job. The uncertainty can be frustrating, and I don't take your situation lightly. As a matter of fact, I am a recent college graduate who was picked up in an intern program. There were over 2,000 applicants. 52 were hired. I graduated Cum Laude from a state University. I did a lot of research before I applied for the program and tailored my resume according to the qualifications advertised. During college, I was heavily invested in community service, which may have helped. *** KH, according to the CNN Article titled "Most Lucrative Degrees for 2007 Grads," Feb 2007, recent college graduates can expect to earn somewhere in a range between $30,502 for Political Science, English and Psychology majors, and $54,587 for Mechanical Engineers. A GS-5 in Washington D.C.-- where GovExec recently reported were offered the most Fed job opportunities-- makes $31,751, and a GS-7 makes $39,330, which both fall within the national averages. The bottom of the range, I agree, but if someone has applied for a Federal job with the hope of getting rich, that someone has applied at the wrong place. *** I believe the crux of the initial issue addressed in the article we are commenting on, might be summed up in this passage: "participants said they needed to deal with negative perceptions of government by students and their parents. Those impressions sometimes are reinforced by the complexities of the federal hiring process, which hobbles students who have to make quick decisions about summer internships or full-time jobs." I, and several of my fellow interns, have been invited to college campuses to discuss employment opportunities in the Federal Government with college graduates. Rome may not have been built in a day, but I do believe the program is working, since I have personally persuaded as many as 15 graduates to apply for an internship program. Patrick Toler Posted February 14, 2008 11:17 AM