Brown University has been chosen as one of five universities to receive a Call to Serve grant, designed to encourage college students to consider careers in the federal government. The Call to Serve program is a joint initiative of a Washington-based nonprofit organization called the Partnership for Public Service and the Office of Personnel Management, a federal agency.

At Brown, the grant proposal was written by Jennifer Slattery-Bownds of the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions; and Beverly Ehrich, associate director of Brown’s Career Development Center. Slattery-Bownds said she and Ehrich plan to hold workshops about federal jobs and how to find them, and to recruit Brown alumni and faculty members who have worked for the federal government, or still do, to discuss their careers. The Taubman Center will award a Call to Serve fellowship to a student in its master’s program.

The amount of the Call to Serve grant, $3,000, is small. But Tim McManus, vice president of education and outreach for the Partnership for Public Service, said the important thing is to involve colleges in informing students about job opportunities in government. McManus said the armed forces spend millions of dollars each year on recruiting, but the civilian side of the government, which has 1.9 million employees, has done next to nothing.

McManus said the keys for participating colleges are to educate the entire campus community about the employment available at the federal level, to tell students exactly how to find and apply for federal jobs, and to encourage schools to build long-term relationships with federal agencies.

One of the Partnership for Public Service’s Web sites, www.makingthedifference.org, includes a report called Where the Jobs Are that lists federal hiring priorities, along with hiring projections through September 2009.

Security, law enforcement and compliance tops the list, with 62,863 hires anticipated. Jobs within the field include investigators, police officers, and intelligence analysts. According to the report, the demand is linked to expanded customs and border security activities by the Department of Homeland Security.

Medical and public health careers are next on the list, with 35,350 new hires expected. The government is looking for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, medical technicians and nursing assistants.

Accounting, budgeting and business follow, with 21,248 new hires projected, particularly in the Internal Revenue Service. Then comes engineering and science, with 17,477 new hires. The field includes a wide range of specialties, including biologists, physicists, chemists, and astronomers. Finally, there’s program managers, administrators and analysts, with 14,305 anticipated new hires.

McManus pointed out that many of the needs of the federal government — nurses, accountants, pharmacists — parallel the needs of private industry, which makes for some tough competition.

McManus and Slattery-Bownds discussed some of the barriers facing the government when it comes to recruiting college students.

One is that many college students just don’t consider the government as a possible employer. “The government hasn’t done enough to talk about all the opportunities it has for people, and the chance it offers to make a difference,” McManus said.

Another is the fear of being swallowed up by a huge bureaucracy. “People think everyone works in a little cubicle all day wearing black suits, and that’s not true,” said Slattery-Bownds.

McManus acknowledged that on many college campuses, students feel a distaste for the current administration, and that colors their attitude about working for the government. But McManus said there’s a big difference between the federal civil service and whatever administration is in power. Meanwhile, Slattery-Bownds pointed out that we’re in the middle of a presidential election, and with all the talk of change from the candidates, it’s a logical time to talk about public service careers.

Finally, there’s money. “A lot of students look at the [government] compensation and say ‘I can make a better package in the private sector,’ ” McManus said. “The government hasn’t done a good job promoting the intangible benefits. . . there’s an opportunity in government to do things a lot more quickly than you would in a corporation. If someone really wants to make a difference, there’s probably no bigger stage in the world.”