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. The groundbreaking Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative is a comprehensive six-year program that begins in a student’s junior year in college and includes a summer internship with a federal agency, a two-year placement in federal service upon graduation, and enrollment in the Master in Public Affairs degree program at the Woodrow Wilson School. Next year Princeton will be adding a graduate cohort to the Scholars program drawn from the pool of applicants to the MPA program of the Woodrow Wilson School. Graduate Scholars will complete two years of service in a federal agency prior to matriculating in the MPA program.

Cultivating the Next Generation of Public Service Leaders

Five highly talented Princeton University juniors have been selected from an extremely competitive pool of applicants as the inaugural class of Scholars. The 2007 Scholars include:

• A chemical engineer who designed a low cost solar oven in Kenya and is interested in a range of international development issues including health, technology and security;
• A policy student who started an organization to tutor immigrants in English and financial literacy who hopes to use her Mandarin and Spanish skills in the nation’s service;
• A molecular biologist who seeks to apply her scientific background to policy matters in fields ranging from malaria eradication to energy infrastructures;
• A political science and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies student currently honing his Arabic skills at the American University in Cairo;
• A Korean and Mandarin-speaking policy major interested in intelligence and other international affairs arenas, who founded a translation effort that has drawn attention from Gates and UNAIDs.

Scholars will most likely be placed in internships and 2-year IPA engagements with federal agencies in Washington, D.C. Assignments at non-D.C. headquarters and overseas posts will also be considered. Supplemental seminars and other activities designed to enhance their overall learning and development experience will be provided by the Partnership for Public Service on the Princeton campus as well as in Washington, D.C.

The general timeline for the first cohort of Scholars is as follows: an internship placement during the summer between their junior and senior years, enrichment seminars by the Partnership for Public Service that span both years, and placement into full-time, two-year positions upon graduation in the fall of 2008. In 2008 and subsequent years, 10 new Scholars will be selected each spring, five at the undergraduate level and five at the graduate level.

Princeton University has secured private funding for the Scholars Initiative. Princeton will provide a stipend for the summer internship and will detail the selected Scholars to federal agencies via the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) for the two-year placement prior to matriculation in the MPA program. Princeton has budgeted to pay the undergraduate Scholars at a rate comparable to the GS-7 level in their first year. The Partnership for Public Service is working with Princeton and the federal community to ensure an appropriate match of skills in placing students, and will provide additional support for the Scholars throughout their tenure.

For more information, please contact:

Caroline Chang
Senior Program Manager, Education and Outreach
Partnership for Public Service
(202) 775-2743
cchang@ourpublicservice.org

 

© 2007 Partnership for Public Service