Forum On Federal Service
On November 7 and 8, The Partnership for Public Service and Princeton University co-convened a forum to explore ways to encourage more college students to consider careers in government. Stephen Barr addressed this forum in his column in The Washington Post.
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Scholars in the Nation's Service
The Partnership for Public Service is collaborating with the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University on an innovative effort to create a pipeline of the nation’s top students in critical-needs areas to explore careers in federal service.
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Public Service Scholarship Proposal
Unveiled
On Thursday, July 12, at its fifth annual Summer Intern Town Hall Meeting on making a difference through public service, the Partnership for Public Service unveiled plans for Roosevelt Scholars, a national scholarship program with a unique payback — graduate school tuition assistance in exchange for a commitment to serve our country in the federal government.
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Public Service Scholarship and Loan Repayment Models
The educational debt that burdens many recent graduates effectively prices them out of public service. Many schools across the nation are taking action to address this growing barrier to public service. A number of campuses have successfully established elite fellowship or loan repayment programs that help to eliminate or reduce student debt load. The programs tend to be highly competitive, which naturally generate prestige. Even if just a few students benefit with direct assistance, the heightened awareness the programs generate across the student body primes the pump to get more students interested in careers with the federal government.
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Student Loan Repayment
Learn more about the potential use of student loan repayment for recruitment and retention in the federal government, as well as recommendations for improvement in current programs.
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Fellowships and Loan Repayment
Partnership for Public Service and Princeton University Forum on Federal Service
Preparing Tomorrow's Public Service Leaders
The Partnership for Public Service and Princeton University co-convened a forum on November 7 and 8, 2007 to explore creating and expanding fellowships, scholarships and other programs to attract the nation’s top students to federal service.
In addition to a lack of knowledge surrounding federal opportunities, the educational debt that burdens many recent graduates effectively prices them out of public service. Bachelor’s degree graduates from private institutions in 2004 who had federal student loans had a median federal student loan debt of $17,125 – a profound disincentive to pursuing opportunities in public service. Professional degree graduates from private institutions will accumulate even more debt, graduating with a median federal student loan debt of $71,317, compared to a median of $44,394 in 1993 (in constant 2003-2004 dollars), which represents a 61% increase in median student loan burden in 11 years. Tuition and fees at both public and private universities have risen this year at more than double the rate of inflation.
The forum was designed to begin a national dialogue about how to attract top talent to government, as 550,000 federal government employees will leave the government through retirement in the next five years.
University leaders representing 24 institutions from across the country attended the forum. The forum was comprised of panel sessions examining such topics as how recipients of public service fellowships perceive government employment; how academic leaders from professional schools of public policy help prepare the next generation of public servants; and how philanthropic efforts may encourage federal service. In addition, Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership, presented key findings from a two-year congressionally funded research project to create cost-effective and sustainable on-campus recruitment models. Princeton president Shirley Tilghman and the Woodrow Wilson School's dean Anne-Marie Slaughter shared Princeton’s efforts to broaden the pool of talented public servants – Princeton Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative.
Key themes and notes from the forum
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For more information, please contact:
Caroline Chang
Senior Program Manager, Education and Outreach
Partnership for Public Service
(202) 775-2743
cchang@ourpublicservice.org
Forum Participants
Bard Center for Environmental Policy
Clark Atlanta University
Cornell University
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Fordham University
George Washington University
Georgetown Law
Harvard University
Hispanic Scholarship Fund Institute
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Katzenbach Partners
Louisiana State University
Middlebury College
Princeton University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Seton Hall University School of Law
Stanford University
Syracuse University
The City University of New York
Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Inc.
Tufts University
University of Arkansas
University of Maryland
University of Michigan
University of Pennsylvania
Washington University in St. Louis
Williams College
Yale University
The Partnership for Public Service works to revitalize our federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by transforming the way government works.
