Involve the Campus Community

Regardless of the individual or office leading the Call to Serve campaign, it is crucial to involve multiple key players on campus. In most cases, these key players mirrored the composition of the cross-campus advisory committee, particularly the working subcommittee, where one existed.

University Leadership

Though the level of continued involvement from the President or Chancellor varied considerably, the backing and support of top leadership was uniformly important across the pilot campuses. Perhaps the most important lesson about the engagement of top leadership is that their support can go a long way in generating enthusiasm and involvement from other key players on campus.
The support of the chancellor at Louisiana State University, for example, was instrumental in achieving broader campus support, office-by-office.  At Stanford University, the president lent his support by, among other things, mentioning Call to Serve regularly in speeches and articles.  The support and approval of the program by leadership is a key component of any successful campaign.

Career Services

Despite the differences amongst pilot schools, career services played an integral role at each campus. Career services offices can create tremendous movement in promoting federal service. Depending on the individual needs of your campus, the role and level of involvement of career services may differ, but it is still an important part of sustaining efforts to promote federal service.   At Louisiana State University, for example, career services representatives served on the advisory committee, and the office took the lead in hosting a Federal Career Day.

Faculty

Faculty – if properly informed about federal job and internship opportunities and how to find and apply for them – can be among the most effective means for reaching out to and inspiring students. Many faculty members participate as formal academic advisors to students, but they also often serve as informal advisors. A survey of students by the Partnership in the fall of 2005 found that many students report faculty members as being among the most influential in providing career advice.

Be sure to include faculty with government experience and/or who are teaching related courses and who can leverage connections with related programs on campus (public policy, political science, interdisciplinary programs and centers).  Internship information may be useful for faculty looking to link their students with a meaningful learning experience.

In the 2005 survey, the Partnership also interviewed roughly 15 faculty members on each pilot campus, and discovered faculty are generally quite open to the notion of educating their students about federal opportunities. However, just like their students, one of the major barriers to this information transmittal is a simple lack of information. A simple handout providing key background enables faculty to copy a one page document for students coming to them for career advice.

An alternate way to engage faculty is to help them connect with government leaders coming to campus to discuss their work. Putting a face on the federal government can sometimes be the most compelling way to shed light on a little-understood career possibility.  For example, having experts in marine biology or engineering speak about their work in the federal government in front of a class of students can open students to a possibility they may not have otherwise considered. Sometimes faculty may also be able to help identify alumni who are working in federal service.

Target Academic Departments Linked to Mission Critical Occupations

Targeting your outreach will help you gain critical footholds, particularly in a large faculty. One way to narrow your focus is to begin with the disciplines that are of greatest common need across federal agencies. These mission critical occupational areas, or MCOs, are fields with a set of specialized skills in regular demand in federal agencies. Currently, top MCO areas include: engineering, accounting and finance, nursing, foreign languages, etc.

Research Faculty Receiving Federal Grant Support for Research

Another way to target faculty to enlist in your Call to Serve campaign is to research what faculty members have an existing tie to government through research grants. These faculty members are already somewhat familiar with the benefits of government service and may be predisposed to sharing information about internships and jobs in the federal government.  Provide them with key information on government opportunities, such as the background piece that the Partnership has developed for faculty.

Tap into Faculty or Staff Working on Service Learning

Faculty and staff working on community service or service learning should be included in your efforts. These members already have an interest in public service and are likely to want to participate in linking service learning to career-oriented public service in the federal government.

Alumni

Alumni can be a huge asset in any campaign to promote federal service on campus. Not surprisingly, students are more open to hearing about the experiences and career advice of individuals they relate to, whether it is because they studied the same topics in school or because they attended the same institution. All of the pilot campuses involved alumni in the Call to Serve efforts.  Approaches varied from inviting high-level or prominent alums to speak (e.g., Astronaut Ellen Ochoa at Stanford University) to inviting young alums to serve on panels to discuss their experiences finding and working in government jobs (George Washington University). Evaluate the strengths of your own alumni connections and draw on them for your own campaign.

Use Alumni in Your Communications and Activities

Building short profiles of alums in federal service can provide excellent content for a web site devoted to public service. The Call to Serve student web site, makingthedifference.org, has a collection of profiles showcasing federal employees. These profiles feature employees in a variety of career fields and agencies.  They provide an engaging tool by putting a face on public service and showing how federal employees can make a difference. If alumni of your university currently working in the federal government would like to participate in this profile campaign, please contact us for more information.

 

© 2007 Partnership for Public Service