This online forum is designed to energize Call to Serve members to educate students about exciting professional opportunities with the federal government. 

 

Partnership Awards Grants to Five Schools  

To encourage schools to adopt lessons from the Call to Serve Recruitment Initiative and spur further innovation, we have initiated a new grant program. This year, we are pleased to announce that Brown University, the California State University Sacramento, Western Michigan University, the University of Albany and Washington University in St. Louis received these grants. Congratulations to these five schools! We look forward to working with them over the next year and half to share more ways to effectively promote federal service on your campus.

 

Table of Contents

News

      NACE Call to Serve Annual Meeting: See you in New Orleans

      Appalachian State University: Student Lands Internship at Smithsonian
      Speakers Weigh in For and Against U.S. Public Service Academy

      Revamped Federal Executive Boards Find Success in 2007

      Partnership for Public Service Job Opportunities
      Welcome New Call to Serve Schools

Resources

      Call to Serve Resources: Archives of eNews Now Available
      Post your Agency's Internships: Federal Internship Directory

      Hot Jobs/Cool Internships

Community Forum

      What are your Activities that Work to Engage Students? WIN A FREE TOOLKIT

      Ask Us: What resources does Call to Serve have for my agency? 

Events 

      2008 Agency Effective Hiring and Recruiting Workshop Series

      Upcoming Workshops

      Career Fairs on the Horizon

 

News

First Annual National Call to Serve Network Meeting
Are you attending the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Conference 2008 in New Orleans? We are pleased to invite Call to Serve member schools and agencies to join us for the First Annual Call to Serve Network National Meeting.

With more than 600 colleges and universities and 75 federal agencies now in the Call to Serve network, the Partnership would like us to come together to:

• Display and discuss new resources for advising students on federal opportunities such as the updated Call to Serve toolkit, Where the Jobs Are, the Call to Serve grant program, the Making the Difference: Advising Students on Federal Opportunities training workshop and many more.  
• Share effective practices in building relationships between federal agencies and universities.
• Provide you the opportunity to give the Partnership feedback on network resources and activities in an effort to better serve network members.

This free event is sponsored by the Partnership for Public Service and is free to all Call to Serve federal agencies, colleges and universities members.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008
From 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm
At the New Orleans Marriott (Site of the 2008 NACE Conference)
555 Canal Street, New Orleans, LA 70103

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Student Lands Internship with Smithsonian's Folkways Recordings Label
Appalachian State University News

 

BOONE, N.C. -- Doug Peach loves to travel and learn about music from other cultures. The Appalachian State University senior has used those interests to secure a 15-week internship with the Smithsonian Institute's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Folkways Recordings label. more >

 

Speakers Weigh in For and Against Proposed U.S. Public Service Academy
By Hurley Goodall
Chronicle for Higher Education

 

Public-policy researchers and university officials gathered at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday to debate the merits of a proposal in Congress to establish a U.S. Public Service Academy.

The proposed undergraduate institution would provide training specifically for public service, in addition to a traditional core curriculum in the arts and sciences. Upon graduation, students would have a five-year obligation to serve in public-service roles on a local, state, or national level. The admissions process would be rigorous, but students would not pay tuition to attend the institution, which would be federally subsidized.

The academy would be modeled on the military-service academies, functioning as a "West Point for public service," Chris Myers Asch, a co-founder of the movement to create the academy, said at Wednesday's forum.

Mr. Asch estimated that the academy would cost $205-million annually but argued that the goal of cultivating the best and the brightest to take the place of retiring baby boomers in public service over the next decade would be worth the expense.

Not everyone at the discussion agreed, however. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus of George Washington University, called the proposal "a bad idea, terribly well advocated." He argued that subsidized programs that encourage careers in public service were already in place at colleges and universities, and that the most academically gifted students would have little incentive to go into public-service jobs because of the relative low pay.

The proposed new institution would duplicate, at greater federal expense, a service already provided by other institutions, Mr. Trachtenberg said.

"The academy is an answer in search of a problem," he said.

Other speakers, such as John Bridgeland, chief executive of the public-policy firm Civic Enterprises, advocated a compromise, in which individual colleges and universities with schools for public policy would form a consortium. This would lower the expenses that would otherwise be used on construction of a new facility and eliminate the need to gather a new faculty and staff.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, introduced a bill to establish the academy in March 2007. The Senate bill (S 960) and a companion measure in the House of Representatives (HR 1671) have gained bipartisan support, but neither measure has advanced.

 

OPM: Revamped Federal Executive Boards Find Success in 2007
By Richard Walker
Federal Computer Week

 

Federal Executive Boards' restructured business operations helped improve federal programs outside the Beltway in 2007, according to the latest FEB annual report from the Office of Personnel Management. more >

 

**Many FEBs have a focus on working with local colleges and universities to place speakers and conduct student training sessions. Look up your regional FEB at www.feb.gov.**

Partnership for Public Service Job Opportunitites
Public Service Fellows Program:  The Partnership for Public Service offers a unique opportunity for civic-minded students and graduates to gain a new appreciation and understanding of public service. Applicants for Spring 2008 are currently being accepted for the Education & Outreach, Government Transformation, and Accounting/Non-Profit Management positions, as well as applications for all positions in the Summer and Fall 2008 semesters. Fellows are compensated with a monthly stipend. Please share this great opportunity widely!

Research Associate Position: This "hands-on" entry-level opportunity is great for anyone looking to apply their background in research and become involved in a number of diverse projects.

 

Call to Serve Welcomes New Members

Welcome to Tulane University in New Orleans, Roosevelt University in Illinois and Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, our most recent additions to the Call to Serve network.

 

"Tulane is committed to fostering an environment that educates students about public service and is dedicated to encouraging students to become part of community-building initiatives. Call to Serve will assist Tulane in forming the necessary partnerships with government agencies and provide engaging opportunities for our students to learn about careers in the federal government." (Kimberly Bonaventure, Tulane University)

 

"Roosevelt University has a strong commitment to social justice that is rooted in its history and mission. Call to Serve gives us the means to help our students connect to opportunities for public service that meets this social justice mission." (Terri Berryman, Roosevelt University) 

 

"The primary reason for wanting to partner with the Call to Serve network is the increasing number of baby boomers retiring in the next 5 to 10 years and the loss of human capital in every sector." (Karen Franks-Harding, Gonzaga University)

 

If you know of any additional colleges, universities or federal agencies that would be interested in joining Call to Serve, have them email calltoserve@ourpublicservice.org or download the application online.

 

 

Call to Serve Resources

Archives of eNews Now Available
Missed an issue of eNews? Want to revisit an old news article or resource? Visit the new archives page for eNews!

Have you used the Federal Internship?
Check out the Partnership's newly launched Federal Internship Directory! Students and job seekers can search the directory to find internship opportunities by agency, academic major, or state. Listings include the contact information for applying so students can get plugged into these positions right away. 

 

Federal agency representatives- submit internships to be included by contacting Katelin Kennedy on the Partnership staff. Katelin will provide you with access to input your agency's listings into the directory.

 

We look forward to expanding this resource and building pipelines of talent into the federal government.

 

Hot Jobs/Cool Internships of the Month
Updated weekly, Hot Jobs/Cool Internships is your source for great entry-level opportunities in government. 

Agencies: Have entry level or student positions? Submit your Hot Jobs/Cool Internships to get them featured on makingthedifference.org! 

 

Community Forum

What are your Activities that Work to Engage Students? Call to Serve Workshop Notes
The notes from the most recent school workshop "Activities that Work to Engage Students" are posted online, but we want to expand this resource with your help!

Students are oversaturated with on-campus activities, so how do you get them to turn out to your events? Submit your ideas- federal service or unrelated- to complete our new resource "Activities that Work to Engage Students." The university or college that submits the most ideas by February 9 will win a free Call to Serve toolkit (a $75 value). 

**Don't forget to sign up for the upcoming workshops, including "KSA Writing and Federal Resumes" on February 5, 2008.

Ask Us

Q: How can my agency take advantage of being a member of Call to Serve?

 

A: Here are a few tips to help you get involved:

• Read the findings and recommendations for agencies, universities and Congress from our two-year study of recruitment on college campuses Making the Difference report. Please share this widely with colleagues.
  
  
• Internship Directory: We can add your internships to our free database of federal internships. Please email Kaitlin Kennedy if you would like your agency's password and uploading instructions.
  
  
• Directory of Agency Contacts: Add a Call to Serve contact to our listings.
  
  
• Feature internships and entry-level positions at Hot Jobs and Cool Internships on the homepage of our student site for federal service, makingthedifference.org. We can also highlight your specific programs on our interest specific pages.
  
  
• Make sure your colleagues are signed up for eNews so they stay up to date on the latest news and resources in hiring and recruitment.
  
  
• Look up career fairs across the country using the calendar on the homepage of makingthedifference.org or in the each eNews issue.
  
  
• Attend the Effective Recruitment and Hiring Agency Workshops, offered four times a year in conjunction with OPM. The next workshop entitled "Student Programs" is scheduled for February 28.
  
  
• Have a question about federal public service? Submit your questions. Not an agency member of Call to Serve? Join by emailing Brooke Bohnet the name of your Agency Call to Serve coordinator (a person primarily responsible for university hiring and student programs). 

 

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Upcoming Events

Effective Recruiting and Hiring Workshop Series
We are pleased to announce the 2008 Effective Recruiting and Hiring Workshop Series for federal agencies. The Partnership and Office of Personnel Management initiated the Series for Call to Serve agencies in 2007. Over 250 agency representatives attended the five workshops held in 2007, which included topics such as "Fixing the Hiring Process" and "Measuring the Effectiveness of Your College Recruiting Efforts."

 

The 2008 Series will lead off on February 28 with a focus on helping agencies prepare to make the most of their student and summer intern programs. Stay tuned for information on the whole series. 

 

To register for workshops, contact Dave Herman at David.Herman@opm.gov.

 

 

CALL TO SERVE WORKSHOPS

 

KSA Writing and Federal Resumes: Session 1 

February 5, 2008
2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EST

 

Mission-Critical Occupation: Engineering

February 21, 2008

3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST

 

To learn more about these workshops and to register, please visit our web site.

AGENCIES: Note these Career Fairs on the Horizon

Use the list on the bottom of makingthedifference.org to find out the details of many of the upcoming career fairs at our Call to Serve member schools. Make sure to email information about your school's career fairs, so we can include it next month.