By Sally Ann Flecker

Our federal government has entered a period of historic transition. Our nation has just elected a new president—with record citizen involvement and voter turnout. The presidential transition, though, is a mere backdrop for the extraordinary changes facing our government and our nation. The economic crisis and two wars are changing public expectations of government. Globalization places increasing demands on government to maintain America's global preeminence. New technology and the growing use of private contractors are raising fundamental questions about how government does its work. This crucial time in history is both a moment of peril and of possibility. Above all, it is a time for action. We must capture the incredible energy and interest of this moment to ensure that our nation's government is able to address its many challenges—on behalf of all of us.
—Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to revitalize the federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by transforming the way government works

Proponents of big government or of minimal government—whether they're Republicans, Democrats, or independents—certainly wouldn't quibble with the notion that, politicians aside, our federal government needs capable leaders.

It's a late afternoon in early spring—a neither-here-nor-there kind of day. Iron-grey clouds block out the sun and blur the line of demarcation between afternoon and evening. You pull your coat close to block out the cold and dreary drizzle. Crocuses and daffodils may be coming up in spots, but true springtime still seems very far away.

It's not any brighter inside Wean Hall. A few people chat here and there, but it feels more like things are being wrapped up than just beginning. Then you turn a corner into a long corridor of classrooms. You hear a kind of hum that gets more distinct the closer you get. You don't have to look at the room number to know that this is where the a capella student gospel group Joyful Noise is rehearsing. Carnegie Mellon junior Nia Austin—who is a cognitive science major, not a voice major—is one of the Joyful Noise-makers.

She and the other singers hold a pitch for a long moment then move, note by note, slowly up the scale, until they are so high that when the leader says one more, the deepness of his voice is shocking. He sounds a note on a pitch pipe at the end, and they all break into a laugh. It's off, they say, but better than the first time. And then they start all over again, filling the room with a sound that is peaceful and steady. It's very Zen-like. Very cool.

Less than four percent of our federal workers are younger than under the age of 25, and the average age of a federal employee is 47. When you consider an exponentially higher percentage of under-25 workers make up our private-sector workforce, and that 20-somethings created companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Facebook, it's clear that our government could use an infusion of young talent. We are missing out on fresh new innovators, who opt for careers in the private sector or, more likely, who never even considered federal service because they didn't know anything about it.
—Partnership for Public Service

Austin, undecided about her career path, had been double-majoring—cognitive science being her true interest but computer science being her insurance that she would find a job after graduation. Then came a summer co-op. She learned that she had been hired because of the cognitive science. Yes, her employer told her, you can get a job with a psychology degree. And this revelation set her free. She likes the interdisciplinary nature of cognitive science and can see herself possibly going into research.

Recently, she had this other career thought playing at the edges of her mind. It's an idea that occurred to her when she was a little girl. She remembers seeing food sitting out behind a restaurant and asking her parents why it wasn't just given to the homeless people she would see outside. It just made good common sense to her then. And it still does. So she's also contemplating the notion of starting a nonprofit food-rescue program to prevent hunger in poverty-stricken areas by picking up leftover food from restaurants at the end of the day and then delivering it to shelters and soup kitchens. That's what's been on her heart, she says.

It's an idea that may have been nudged back up to the surface after a couple of experiences this past winter. One happened at a conference she went to in Atlanta over winter break. The Impact Movement does a lot of outreach and community service. It has chapters at various college campuses. The one at Carnegie Mellon started last year. There were nearly 5,000 college students in attendance at the conference. One day was spent in outreach. They split up into groups that went to different areas of Atlanta. Austin's group went to a park area. "It wasn't a kid-friendly park," says Austin. "It was a place where homeless people congregated." The weather was brisk that day. About 80 people had gathered. The students were handing out packages from Chik-fil-A—a sandwich and some chips. One woman in particular made a lasting impression on Austin.

"She had recently been hit by a bus, and she is in a wheelchair," remembers Austin. "She's homeless, she is hungry, and she doesn't have much of anything, but she has a Bible. It was just really crazy to me to see someone who you think would be broken, upset, and angry, but she wasn't. It was like she was content with the situation. She wasn't complaining. That really struck me. These people, they need help. But it's not like they're complaining like most of us would. I talked with her, and I prayed with her, and we both were crying. I really bonded with her. There were a lot of people like that. It is crazy how much faith they had. But I guess that is kind of when faith develops—when you don't have anything."

There wasn't enough food that day for the number of people who were there, but Austin was struck by the sense of community that she saw. Because the woman in the wheelchair hadn't been able to get over to where the lunches were being distributed, one of the men who got a box gave his to her. "And he was hungry, too," says Austin.

Back at school, Austin started to think about how she could change the situation for the people she met that day at the Atlanta park. "I had made some very personal relationships with these people, but I was thinking about them individually, not as a whole," she says. But one evening there was a meeting on campus by World Vision, a nonprofit that addresses humanitarian issues such as global poverty. "They had a night where you came and experienced what it would be like to receive one of those meals that we give out to foreign nations. It was this bowl of hot porridge that was creamy and not very good. Basically we had to embody the experience. You got in this long line and waited for your porridge. And then you sat down on the floor and ate it as if you were really hungry and it was your only meal. On top of that, they gave you a card with information about one of the kids who was in this dire situation. Usually they were orphans taking care of other siblings." Austin read about a 14-year-old boy named Joseph, the oldest of four. His parents had died. He and his siblings were homeless and had no food. "That was very eye-opening. That's when I started thinking about it, and I guess I brought it back to the United States. There are people who are hungry in Pittsburgh. I felt the need to do something—I'm still working on what."

The Partnership established the Federal Service Student Ambassadors program for the 2008—2009 academic year. The Partnership selected 15 applicants who completed federal summer internships to serve as student ambassadors. Ambassadors were given in-depth training, a $2,200 stipend, and then returned to their campuses to create greater awareness about federal job opportunities. The Partnership will deploy a corps of passionate student ambassadors every year to actively inspire and inform their peers about serving their country.
—Partnership for Public Service

Austin, with her multifaceted outlook toward the future, was chosen to be one of the inaugural Federal Service Student Ambassadors. The other students hail from Berkeley, Columbia, CUNY, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina State, Penn, Princeton, Spelman, and Tufts.

Her consideration for careers in the public sector and her selection as an ambassador come from her own student co-op experience with the federal government last summer. Austin can't really talk too much about it, not like she can about her Impact Movement experience. Sure, she can tell you she likes D.C., wouldn't mind working there when she graduates. Northern Virginia seems like a nice place to live—though the cost of living there does give her pause.

She can tell you that she worked in a natural language processing lab, which means she was learning how to use the computer to analyze language. And she can tell you that the job falls within the intelligence community. Beyond that, she's not mysterious as much as she's mum over the confidential details.

At Carnegie Mellon, Austin fulfills her ambassadorship through the career center. The center helps with planning and publicity about career opportunities with the federal government. Some of the sessions are open to the entire campus. Others she gears toward specific groups, engineers for example, and talks about the kinds of federal government opportunities they might be interested in.

One recent series she called "Wanna Work for Obama?" Carnegie Mellon was very big on Obama, she says. She thinks it's a good time to get people excited about the opportunity to work in some capacity for the federal government.

"Basically, I was explaining how to search for a job in your field," she says. "How to apply for it and, hopefully, get the job. A lot of people not only don't realize how many federal services opportunities there are, or they don't think it is as easy to apply for them as it is in the private sector. They don't realize that these agencies have Web sites just like Microsoft. I haven't noticed as many information sessions for federal agencies as there are for private sector companies. I see Google ads all over the place, but it is kind of a one-sided perspective. People just haven't been exposed to the opportunities there are."

Take the patent office, for instance. "What people usually find interesting about the patent office is that you learn so much just by looking at the different patents and things that you had never ever heard of," Austin says. "You get to learn about them in depth. So it is kind of like you are still in school. You get to keep learning about things."

"Once students realize that government jobs aren't only for political science majors, they get excited about these challenging and meaningful career options. With over 160 federal agencies, there's a place in the government for any college major."

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works. ... Those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account—to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day—because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
—President Barack Obama

Austin, still mulling over all of her career aspirations, returned to the nation's capital this summer to continue her co-op role.

Sally Ann Flecker is an award-winning freelance writer whose work appears regularly in this magazine.