Chancellor Sean O’Keefe took a trip this past week to Washington, D.C. to attend several meetings for the Call to Serve Initiative that teaches college students about careers in the federal government.
The Call to Serve Initiative is a collaboration between the Partnership for Public Service and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.
Pam Coltharp, assistant to the vice-chancellor in the division of student life and academic services, heads the Call to Serve Initiative at the University. She said the goal is to “create awareness among young Americans about opportunities in federal public service.”
The University is among only six schools in the country to be invited to participate in the Call to Serve Initiative.
“It’s pretty cool that we’re one of only six schools in the country to get invited to that,” said Kristine Calongne, director of public relations.
The other schools invited to join include the University of New Mexico, Clark Atlanta, George Washington, Ohio State and Stanford universities.
These six schools participated in a pilot program, testing a number of programs that “are now being rolled out to over 575 schools in the Call to Serve network across the country,” Coltharp said.
Calongne said the chancellor has always been involved with federal public service in several capacities. He was first inspired to become involved in public service through the Presidential Management Fellows Program, a prestigious program for graduate students to start on a track to careers in public service. O’Keefe was a member of the first class of Fellows in 1978, which eventually culminated in his term as NASA administrator.
Calongne said the chancellor has a “public service perspective that he brings to the table that LSU has never had before in a chancellor.” She said O’Keefe was enthusiastic and determined about bringing the Call to Serve program to the University.
The trip was financed mostly by the the groups sponsoring the Call to Serve Initiative, and private funds from the LSU Foundation covered the rest of the costs of the trip. No state funds were used.
During his time in Washington D.C., O’Keefe attended the Partnership for Public Service’s Service to America Awards and the Board of Advisors meeting to discuss the University’s role in the initiative.
He also met with the Jennifer Dorn, the new president of the National Academy of Public Administration, and attended, at the invitation of the Secretary of the U.S. Navy, a dinner and Pentagon briefings with former secretaries of the Navy.
—-Contact Ellen Fargason at [email protected]