Define Your Goals

Institutions choosing to make it a priority to promote federal internships and jobs will find the effort most effective and efficient as a long-term plan.  A sustained campaign involves cross-campus communication and planning through a standing advisory group. Relationship building – with federal agencies as well as across academic and administrative units – is inherently long term.

Build in Time for Planning

Changing campus culture to embrace and promote federal service will not happen overnight.  In our pilot institutions, several months were devoted to assessing the landscape and scoping out possible approaches and allies. The spring and summer may be good times to take the pulse of the campus and get a sense of what faculty members and administrators to involve in planning.

Look for a Fit within Existing Institutional Priorities

As you research and plan, keep the following question in the back of your mind: Would a federal service campaign be a natural fit with any existing institutional priorities or activities? Though it may not be evident at the outset, the answer may be “yes” more than you might expect. At a few of the pilot institutions, the Call to Serve initiative was able to ride on the coat tails of ongoing institutional efforts in areas ranging from enhancing overall internship placement, to creating a new center for public service, to bringing more programming into the residence halls.

Know Your Students

An important starting place is to assess what students and faculty know about federal government, and what they are interested in learning. In general, the average college student is open to the idea of internships and jobs in federal government, but the simple lack of good information about the opportunities presents a barrier. In the pilot schools, even subtle variations in terms of how familiar they are with the federal government and what information they are interested in may have significant implications for what strategies and activities to adopt.

We have also provided copies of the surveys that the Partnership for Public Service used to establish our baseline understanding of campus attitudes and awareness, which we encourage you to use. The results of the benchmark studies, conducted in the fall of 2005, are summarized in the Partnership for Public Service’s report, “Back to School: Rethinking Federal Recruiting on College Campuses.” Use this report as a starting point to understanding student perceptions, setting goals, and developing your overall campaign.

© 2007 Partnership for Public Service