Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Deputy Director Dan Blair told students representing over 20 Colleges and Universities in Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C. that opportunities of every kind are available in the civil service. The students gathered at the OPM Theodore Roosevelt headquarters building for a first time event, the ‘Student Internships Briefing’, an outreach initiative and joint effort between OPM and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) designed to expose college students to internship and employment opportunities in the federal government.

"OPM Director Kay Coles James has initiated and continues to lead an aggressive outreach campaign to make opportunities available to the best and brightest that America has to offer,” Blair said. “The e-Scholar website has a database with millions of dollars devoted to student programs and internships for those who will respond to the call to public service while they are still in college.”

The OPM effort which was co sponsored with National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS), an honors organization recognizing outstanding academic achievement among first and second year college students also drew a large contingency of students from Hampton University, a historically black college and university (HBCU).

The NSCS, founded in 1994 at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. now has active chapters on over 200 college and university campuses across the United States. Steve Loflin, the organization’s founder and executive director wanted to expand special opportunities for NSCS members by linking arms with OPM to offer an informational and hands-on seminar on www.StudentJobs.gov, the website which features student internship and employment opportunities, and e-Scholar, a link from the StudentJobs website which is the Government’s one stop resource which provides high school and college students with easy access to approximately 1 billion dollars in educational opportunities within federal agencies and partnering organizations.

“As you return to your schools, you will have an edge above your fellow students,” Blair told the standing-room-only audience. “You know where the jobs are and how to access them. Each of you has an opportunity to make a difference now as you serve as an intern or a semester employee as a civil servant. You don’t have to wait to graduate to start your career.”

Blair’s presentation was followed by a demonstration of the StudentJobs and e-Scholar online search engines both accessible from www.studentjobs.gov. OPM staff were on hand to assist the students in navigating the site at computer terminals.

“OPM is leading the initiative to make federal jobs easily accessible to everyone by refining and simplifying the online process,” Blair said. “A career in public service offers valuable job experience, training opportunities, and excellent benefits, with plenty of opportunity for advancement. You can start your career today!”

James has held similar meetings with other groups including organizations representing Asian-Pacific Islanders, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), and Hispanic Association Colleges and Universities (HACU).

Our mission is to ensure the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce. OPM supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.