Phillips Brooks House to host Public Service Recruiting Day Oct. 27

On Friday, Oct. 27, Harvard College will host Public Service Recruiting Day, aimed at matching public service employers with students interested in beginning public service oriented careers. Nearly 20 diverse organizations will be represented, and will conduct interviews with over 130 students who applied during the 2017 recruitment cycle.

The program was created by the Phillips Brooks House Center for Public Service and Engaged Scholarship in collaboration with the public service offices, and is an opportunity for recruiters to come directly to students. Assistant Dean of Harvard College for Public Service Gene Corbin emphasized the barriers that often exist in recruiting students for public service careers, which he hopes efforts like this one will begin to break down.

“Many Harvard College students are passionate about public service, but the public interest sector does not possess the resources of the private sector for recruitment,” Corbin said. “There are, however, opportunities for graduates to do meaningful work and serve society in the public interest sector. We recognized that assisting leading public interest organizations in coming to campus for a structured and early recruitment process would bridge the gap between the hopes of many seniors and the needs of these organizations.”

The following organizations will be participating in Public Service Recruiting Day:

• Ashoka (D.C.)
• Brennan Center for Justice (NYC)
• City of Boston Mayor’s Office
• City of New York, Office of Public Engagement
• Council on Foreign Relations
• District Attorney of New York County
• Environment America (Boston)
• Federal Defenders of New York
• Harlem Children’s Zone
• Harvard Teacher Fellows
• Immigrant Justice Corps (NYC)
• Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT
• KIPP Capital Teaching Residency (D.C.)
• NAACP (Baltimore)
• Partnership for Public Service (D.C.)
• Peace Corps (Boston)
• Princeton in Latin America
• Rockaway Youth Task Force (NYC)
• San Francisco Fellows

Each of these organizations is hiring, or expects to hire, a graduating senior from college with a demonstrated passion for public service.

Connie Cheng ’18, a student leader in public service, added that “The fact that the public sector usually lags a semester behind the private sector in hiring seniors compounds anxiety for students like myself who are interested in pursuing public service after graduation. I’m grateful that Public Service Recruiting Day works to bridge that gap by moving up the timeline, centralizing the process, and providing additional resources to students and employers alike.”

The success of Public Service Recruiting Day is largely due to the generous support of John Simon ’84.

“We need the best and brightest of college graduates to get involved and bring their passion, energy, drive, and creative ideas to this work. As new technologies and new data become available, huge new opportunities to change society dramatically for the better are being literally ripped open,” Simon said. But this won’t come to pass unless we get the next generation of great people involved. And, that’s what Public Service Recruiting Day is about. I’m pleased to be a part of it and help Dean Corbin and the team with it in any way that I can. “

More information available at www.publicservice.fas.harvard.edu