While many Stanford students dream of landing a job at a Fortune 500 company or top consulting firm, a growing number are pursuing public service options after graduation. In recent years, postgraduate service programs, such as Teach For America and AmeriCorps, have witnessed a surge in applications from Stanford.
As Jim Murray, the Postgraduate Public Service Program director at the Haas Center, puts it, “I think that we have leaders who want to make change, and they see public service as a way to do that.”
Murray estimates 100 to 120 Stanford students go on to complete postgraduate service each year, either through the Haas Center or external programs.
Today’s millennial generation–those born after 1982–grew up with public service as part of their most basic education. More than 80 percent of current high school students perform community service, according to Morley Winograd and Michael Hais in their book “Millenial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics.” As a result, students are endowed with a more conscientious and informed worldview and are choosing to give back to their communities through public service, some say.
Lisa Hoffman, the Teach for America (TFA) on-campus recruiting director, noted the competitiveness of the program. In 2009, TFA received 35,178 applications and had a 15 percent acceptance rate, she said.
Postgraduate fellowships through the Haas Center have also noted an increase in applications, according to Murray, who said postgraduate service offers real life, entry-level experience in sectors that may otherwise be difficult to break in to. It can also better define students’ interests and how they could best use a graduate degree, if they choose to go on to graduate school. Finally, postgraduate service often makes an applicant more attractive to graduate schools.
Murray also said service careers have become increasingly attractive due to the professionalization of the non-profit and public service sectors. With increased funding, many nonprofits offer competitive salaries, especially compared to companies that have had to cut back due to the economic recession.
Christine O’Connell ’08 said she chose TFA in order to address the issue of educational inequity. She served as a high school biology teacher at a charter school in Brooklyn and will continue her passion for serving underserved students by completing her doctorate in ecology at the University of Minnesota and becoming a professor.
Of her experience with TFA, O’Connell said, “I never once wished I hadn’t done it.”
Hoffman estimates that, after TFA, about one-third of teachers stay in education, one-third go on to work with non-profits and related fields, and the remaining teachers enter completely new professions.
Catherine Aranda ’10 is currently a Stanford Public Interest Network (SPIN) fellow, working to coordinate family workshops for the early childhood literacy program JumpStart. Aranda was heavily involved with public service throughout her undergraduate career, completing three summer fellowships through the Haas Center and co-directing East Palo Alto Stanford Academy, a mentoring program for middle school students. She has tentative plans to enter business school after graduation but says that, no matter what her career trajectory, she wants to remain engaged in her community.
“I’ve always known that regardless of what I end up doing as a profession, public service is going to be a part of my life no matter what,” she said.
Postgraduate fellows come from all majors, but Murray said that there are a large number of international relations, human biology and public policy majors.
According to political science professor and co-director of Center on Philanthropy and Civic Society Rob Reich M.A. ’98 Ph.D. ’98, students graduate with good intentions and a solid grip of world issues but are not always sure how to translate ideals into action.
“The Stanford student body is very motivated, but what’s lacking is an array of courses that would help students prepare for and be better service providers,” Reich said.
For alumni like O’Connell, the most effective learning came through hands-on experience, where abstract mission statements and theories of educational equity were replaced by direct experience.
“I loved teaching and I couldn’t have done what I did without [TFA],” she said. “I support TFA’s big ideas, but they didn’t affect me from day to day.”
Hoffman noted that students have increasingly adopted the mindset of, “I don’t want to work to work. I want my work to matter.”
Contact Sarah Jacobsen at [email protected].