In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced, “A genuinely free society cannot be a spectator society.” To combat civil ennui and unrest, and rising numbers of those darn hippies, the commander-in-chief decided it was time to better enable the development of talented American youth by opening to them an opportunity for service in Washington, D.C.

The following year, the newly established Presidential Commission on White House Fellowships addressed the lack of civic leaders, stating:

In this country today, we produce a great number of skilled professionals. But too few of this intellectual elite provide the society with statesmanlike leadership and guidance in public affairs. If the sparsely settled American colonies of the late 18th century could produce Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Monroe, Madison, Hamilton, Franklin, and others of superlative talent, breadth and statesmanship, should we not be able to produce in this generation ten times that number? … More must be done in the development of our ablest young people to inspire and facilitate the emergence of such leaders and statesmen.

President Johnson, expanding on the ideas of his friend and president of the Carnegie Corporation, John W. Gardner, created the White House Fellows program.

Forty-five years later, program literature proclaims it to be “is one of America's most prestigious programs for leadership and public service.”

Jonathan Spaner, a White House Fellow in the 2002-03 class, in a reflection of the prevalent humility of the exceptionally gifted fellows, modifies this statement. “I don’t like the word ‘prestigious,’” Spaner explained, “but it’s the most unique leadership and public service program in the world. It provides an experience that you really can’t get anywhere else.”

Jami Floyd heard about the White House Fellows Program from the dean of her law school. Eugene Huang heard about it from both a professor and a mentor. Adam Taylor and Marc Sternberg heard about it from friends of a friends at their grad schools. Jonathan Spaner read about it in Colin Powell’s book, My American Journey. But what is the chance of ending up as one of the 600 or so fellowship alumni if fellows hear about it just through casual encounters? In the current United States population of approximately 305 million, the chance is 0.00000197 percent. The odds, it would seem, are against successful word of mouth recruiting; and yet, that provides a major outreach method for this hidden-in-plain-view opportunity.

‘Community of Leaders’

Several thousand organizations and individuals help promote the White House Fellowship, a program official told OhMyGov. While the program does not advertise with paid media, it does host information sessions and is expanding its social media presence.

“Our goal is to build a community of leaders who will make a difference in our society,” Program Director Cindy Moelis said in an interview. The selection of an annual class of 11 to 19 fellows from about 1,000 applicants requires a rigorous screening process. First, the program office identifies the hundred most promising candidates to be interviewed by eight to ten regional panels. From these applicants, panels of prominent local citizens recommend 30 to move on to Selection Weekend.

Selection weekend. The phrase evokes an array of reactions from fellows. Eugene Huang, of the 2006-07 class, remembered it as “nerve wracking,” while Marc Sternberg of the current 2009-10 class said, “You know, I’m a real masochist. I actually like that stuff.”

Adam Taylor, another current fellow, touched on the consensus feeling when he described it as “pretty surreal.” Both Taylor and Sternberg rubbed shoulders with the likes of Tom Brokaw and Tom Daschle during this two-and-a-half-day scrutiny series. These bigwigs are two of the 28 current members of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. The president chooses this commission as a mix of professions and political parties. Each incoming president will choose new members, but keep incumbent members from the previous administration too. It’s the Commission that recommends the individuals it finds most qualified to win fellowships.

Tough questions, and interpretive dance?

A candidate can expect eight or nine formal interviews during a weekend that is peppered with memorable moments. Jami Floyd, a 1993/1994 fellow, remembered, “In my four decades on the planet, including the bar exam, I don’t think I have been through a more intense and difficult process in my life. In fact, after the fellowship selection process, I was sick in bed for a week because the stress wore me down.” But Spaner took a different route. He did prepare, but he said his motto was, “Go in and tell my story and just see what happens.” Additionally, he recalled being asked by a commissioner if he could perform an interpretive dance. He couldn’t, but he got the fellowship anyway.

The President confirms the recommended fellows, who begin their one-year term on September 1. Moelis points to the Executive Order that details ideal candidates for the position. Primarily, they should “demonstrate a strong commitment to public service and skills to work at the highest levels of the Federal government.” The chosen ones are in possession of “unusual ability, high moral character, outstanding motivation, and a broad capacity for leadership.” No age limit exists on either end of the spectrum, though Floyd, who is a two-term member of the White House Fellows board of directors, noted that fellows “are supposed to have a sort of youthful idealism.”

Fellows are compensated at the Federal rank of GS-14 step 3, or $100,00 for the year. The agencies that hire the Fellows pay that salary.

“For many individuals, it is a salary cut,” Huang notes. “But it’s tempered by the chance to serve the people.” Additionally, Floyd cleared up any concern for problems along political lines. “People who choose to be fellows understand it’s a nonpartisan bipartisan program,” she said, “We really haven’t had any problems.”

Big responsibilities, little sleep

In July, chosen fellows spend a week interviewing with the principals from government agencies. After the interviewing, the fellows and the principals rank each other. The program director then matches the fellows into their new positions.

Huang had a background in economics and was coming from a government position in Virginia as the state’s the Secretary of Technology; he matched to the Treasury Department as an advisor to Secretary Henry Paulson. He began with getting Paulson’s new administrative processes buzzing. Then, Paulson assigned him to work on two portfolio items. The first involved assessing energy and environment costs regarding the potential for a “cap and trade” system. Primarily, he worked in international economic policy; specifically, Huang was a lead coordinator in bilateral dialogue with the Chinese. In terms of job duties, Huang reported, “Emails come in all day and night, so the day-to-day was never constant.” He had two daily staff meetings, worked on memos, entered email requests, worked with embassies overseas, attended interagency meetings, spent time traveling domestically as well as in Europe and China, and was on call all the time, including weekends. Plus, he kept up with his fellowship responsibilities of community service and lunchtime education sessions. Of it all, Huang simply said, “It’s a demanding job.”

Other fellows share experiences of similar intensity and scope. A career military serviceman with the Coast Guard, Spaner’s fellowship placed him with former governor Tom Ridge in the Office of Homeland Security in its opening days. Spaner attended meetings and wrote speeches and testimony for Ridge. For an ongoing project, he was made staff lead for formulating an interagency plan to strengthen homeland security during the war against Iraq.

“It was hard, but it was good experience,” Spaner said.

Current fellows Taylor and Sternberg, in their third week of fellow-ing, were learning the ropes. Taylor reported, “I’m splitting my time between Cabinet Affairs and the Office of Public Engagement. They’re both in the White House. I feel like there’s been a real learning curve and I’ve learned a lot already. I’ve had to hit the ground running.” Sternberg’s full schedule isn’t a new aspect in his life. “Nine to five is probably not going to happen,” he said, “Most of us, if not all of us, are coming from extremely busy lives.”

Floyd matched with Vice President Al Gore, but was “shared” with Hillary Clinton to help with the health care proposition. She worked mainly in communications and speechwriting, with plenty of legwork around the Capital. A criminal lawyer by training, Floyd worked on crime and justice policy, like the Brady handgun bill. She compares the experience of a fellow to that of characters in the TV show “The West Wing.” The difference, she said, is “They really cannot show you how stressful and how exhausting it is to work in the White House. There’s no way to convey what it feels and looks like to live on two hours of sleep every day.”

As to why anyone would do this, Floyd explained, “When you’re a White House Fellow, you really are an employee. You really are a staffer in the White House or at an agency, so you’re pretty much doing what everyone else is doing. And you get the wonderful benefits of being a fellow on the side… the fellowship with your other fellows, and the wonderful educational experience.”

Fringe benefits for Fellows include a lunchtime speaker series and trips to see how U.S. policy plays out in real life. Two to three times per week, fellows meet with “renowned leaders from the private and public sectors,” as the literature puts it.

Taylor reported that one of his new bosses, Cabinet Secretary Christopher Lu, participated in an opening round of these off-the-record discussions. Floyd, a self-described “kid who grew up in the projects on the Lower East Side,” said of this opportunity, “You don’t come from that and sit at a table with Colin Powell or Madeleine Albright or Ted Koppel. It was incredible to have that level of exposure and the opportunity to ask really open-ended questions of world leaders sitting elbow to elbow with them at a table with no more than 16 people seated by your side.”

A dozen individuals, all ‘Type A’

Several times a year the Fellows travel together. Destinations range from Botswana and India to Miami and Houston, with the purpose to meet with local officials and heads of state. The group also performs community service in the Washington metro community. This year the fellows have partnered with three nonprofits: Food & Friends, D.C. Preparatory Academy and the Higher Achievement program. According to Taylor, the class will try to volunteer together on Saturdays.

Three committees — one each to plan speakers, travel and service work — are the voice of and the expression of order in the group. Order is needed because, as Huang said, “Twelve to 15 individuals, all type A, want to contribute. There are no freeloaders.”

Sternberg surmises of the education program, “As much as it is about access to these amazing people, which is awesome and not something we’ll ever expect to really have again, it’s also about the identity of the group and what it is we want to focus on, and learn about together, the kind of questions we want to ask and the kind of conversations we want to have over the course of the year.”

The sense of fellowship — “my fellow fellows” repeated over and over in OhMyGov’s conversations — lays the foundation for success. It seems to be what every White House Fellow truly desires to achieve. Taylor hopes to gain a deeper understanding of the government and leadership, but first spoke of his goal to “get some lifelong, deep friendships with the fellows.” Spaner and others did get those friendships.

“The fellowship with the other participants is probably the best part of the program,” he says, “Because you spend a year together almost as a family, and you really learn a lot from your fellow fellows.”

Floyd cannot say enough about her fellow fellows. She says her class was “extraordinarily close”; they just had a retreat this year. “There’s something about the experience of the fellowship that is unique enough to really only be understood by someone who went through that experience.”

The Alumni Club

Strong fellowship lends itself to a strong alumni network. Moelis noted that this network of over 600 former fellows includes Colin Powell, Gen. Wesley Clark, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, writer Doris Kerns Goodwin and U.S. Senator Sam Brownback. All fellows are invited, and most attend, an annual alumni weekend in Washington. Spaner described the weekend as a chance to meet the current administration’s players and “catch us up on the latest on national policy, and then we can take that information and we go back to our communities and figure out how we can align with that. It is a life-long connection.”

Going back to the communities is just what President Johnson and the founding commissioners had in mind for the White House Fellowship program. Of LBJ’s friend Gardner, Moelis said, “I believe that his vision is still flourishing — and we are building on that vision.”

“The whole idea is to give citizens who otherwise wouldn’t get this access an opportunity to observe this process so that they can then go back to their communities and share that experience,” Floyd said. After her fellowship year ended, she taught law, and slowly made her way into journalism. Now, she broadcasts about court cases daily for two hours on her own truTV show, “Jami Floyd: Best Defense.”

Spaner is the Commanding Officer of the Coast Guard air base in northern Michigan, while Huang is the Director of Operations for the National Broadband task force. When their fellowship years ended, both of their principals asked them to stay on for a time in their positions.

In addition to backing from executive agencies, the fellowship gets support from the head executive himself. The program has flourished under eight presidents, including the two most recent ones.

“President and Mrs. Obama are committed to the ideals and success of the White House Fellows program. They strongly support investing in America’s next generation of leaders, so we are broadening our outreach efforts to encourage more promising young leaders to apply,” Moelis said.

Of the previous administration, Floyd said President George W. Bush “loved this program. I don’t think we’ve had a bigger supporter. He went bike riding with the fellows." She further explained of presidential enthusiasm, “I think they see that the concept of this program, because it’s about service, really appeals to presidents who are about service themselves. It’s a perfect sync up. I think the partisan thing just falls away. People just find it kind of refreshing.”

The best kept secret?

Service and leadership are the driving factors for application to the White House Fellows Program. “I felt like it was the perfect leadership program for people who are committed to public service,” said Taylor.

Huang echoed that sentiment. “Being able to serve your country while observing leadership first-hand and discuss it with peers is an experience like no other,” he said.

Floyd encourages possible future fellows to join the slowly-growing network of White House Fellows. “This is the best kept secret in Washington,” she said. “People should not be intimidated by the application process or the fine reputation of the program. That they should apply, take it on. You learn a lot about yourself in the process of applying for the program.

“And once you’ve applied,” she adds, “you may be surprised to see that you move on in the process, and maybe make it all the way to a White House Fellowship, which will be, without a doubt, one of the best experiences of your life.”