John Gardner Public Service Fellowship

The John Gardner Public Service Fellowship provides opportunities for graduating seniors and coterms to invest their talent, energy and training in public service.

(Pictured above: 2023-24 Gardner Fellows (l-r) Briana Martin-Villa, Jonathan Dena, Sean Casey, Sammy Raucher, Maya Sapienza, Ananya Karthik)

Application Deadline

Apply via SOLO by January 9, 2025

Eligibility

To be eligible for a Gardner Fellowship, you must be a current graduating senior or co-term at Stanford University or University of California, Berkeley. Applicants are encouraged from any academic major and public service background.

Application Information

Applications must be submitted via SOLO. Along with answers to essay questions, applicants are asked to submit PDFs of their resume and unofficial transcript. 

Applicants must also solicit two letters of recommendation: one from a faculty member who is familiar with the applicant’s academic work and one from a professional contact (i.e. supervisor) who is familiar with the applicant’s professional work (internship, job, etc.). 

Selection Criteria

Applicants are reviewed based on the following criteria:

• Commitment to public service;
• Demonstrated leadership incorporating the Principles of Ethical and Effective Public Service;
• Readiness for fellowship experience;
• Record of academic accomplishment;
• Quality and content of written statements.

Essay Questions

In the SOLO application form, you will be prompted to answer the following questions:

1. What issue do you care most deeply about? What are examples of your ideal placement? What would you hope to learn from a mentor in your chosen field?
2. How do you see a Gardner Fellowship uniquely building on your Stanford experience and informing your future career trajectory?
3. Leadership takes many forms. John Gardner spoke of public service leaders as individuals who are optimistic, curious, open and positive. How would you describe your leadership qualities to a potential placement organization or mentor? In answering this question, please reference the Principles of Ethical and Effective Service and provide concrete examples of how your leadership has impacted an organization or a cause.

Program Timeline

• September: Application portal opens
• January: Application portal closes
• February: Selection committee reviews applications, interviews finalists, and offers awards
• March: Awardees must commit
• April - June: Fellows engage in the placement process
• September - October: Fellowships begin

Fellowship Components

Mentorship

One of the distinguishing features of the John Gardner Fellowship is its emphasis on mentorship. The program matches each fellow with an experienced social innovator and public servant in the fellow’s field of interest. Mentors are outstanding senior professionals who guide each fellow’s professional and personal growth and development. The mentor commits to provide the fellow with substantive and interesting assignments, broad exposure to the inner workings of the organization or community, and opportunities to make a contribution in the fellow’s field of interest. Mentors are expected to provide fellows with opportunities (e.g. travel, meetings, attendance at special events), exceeding those normally available to recent college graduates. Often, fellows have one senior level mentor and other supervisors/advisors who guide their day-to-day work.

Learning Plan

A learning plan outlining the skills, knowledge and values that the fellow hopes to develop during the fellowship are due at the end of the first month. It is crafted jointly by the fellow and the mentor. A template and instructions are provided to the fellows. The purpose of the learning plan is to make sure the mentor and fellow share clear and common expectations of the fellowship and also to provide a framework for intentionality, reflection, and assessment. Learning plans are revised as needed during the fellowship.

Midyear Meeting

In the winter quarter, all six fellows gather for two days of site visits, reflection, and professional development. Travel expenses are paid for by the fellowship program.

End-of-year Evaluation

In June or July, fellows gather for two days of reflection, evaluation and meetings with the fellowship’s alumni, campus advisors, selection committee, and the new 2024 Fellows.

Mentor’s End-of-Fellowship Evaluation

Mentors are asked to complete an online evaluation to discuss the fellow and the program.

Fellowship Requirements

Gardner Fellows must agree to fulfill the following requirements before, during, and after their fellowship term:

Before Fellowship Term

• Engage in a deliberative spring quarter placement process guided by the Program Director;
  • Note: Placement organization must be located within the continental United States.
• Attend Cardinal Careers New Fellows Orientation (late May), conduct pre-placement site visits, and other preparatory workshops;
• Interview with prospective mentors prior to or shortly after graduation;
• Complete a workshop in Principles of Ethical and Effective Public Service.

During Fellowship Term

• Serve for 10 consecutive months of full-time work at the placement starting no later than October 1 following graduation.
  • The fellow can be given time off in accordance with the organization’s regular personnel policies.
  • The Gardner Fellowship cannot be combined with any other award or employment.
• Design a personal learning plan in conjunction with the placement mentor;
• Attend the following events: Gardner 40th Anniversary Retreat (March 21-23, 2025), Gardner Welcome Reception (April); Participate in a mid-year meeting and an end-of-fellowship evaluation meeting;

After Fellowship Term

• Correspond with fellowship donor(s) as requested by Haas Center staff, including writing a year-end report and stewardship letters;
• Assist the program in future years by nominating applicants, identifying potential mentors, and by participating in information and training sessions.

Previous Placements

Previous Gardner Fellows have worked with leaders in organizations such as United Nations, White House, Secretary-General’s Office, Department of State, Partners in Health, Department of Justice, Harlem Children’s Zone, City of San Francisco, American Enterprise Institute, the Asia Foundation, Southern Poverty Law Center, National Council of La Raza, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, among many others.

History & Background

Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, established the John Gardner Public Service Fellowship Program in 1985 to enable graduating seniors and co-terms to work with a distinguished government or nonprofit leader and to engage in compelling work in their chosen field with exposure at the highest levels.

The program honors John Gardner's own remarkable contributions to the public sector. An alumnus of both Stanford and Berkeley, Gardner (1912-2002) was a distinguished public servant (former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare) and social innovator (first full-time chairman of the National Urban Coalition; founder of the White House Fellowship Program, Common Cause and Independent Sector). From 1989 to 1996, he held the Miriam and Peter Haas Centennial Chair in Public Service at Stanford. He also served three years as Chairman of the National Civic League was a member of the National Advisory Council for the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley and the Haas Center's National Advisory Board. Gardner believed that guidance for aspiring young professionals could contribute to our society's leadership potential. Please see the October 2012 Video describing how John Gardner's Legacy Inspires a New Generation of Leaders and Bill Moyer's tribute to John Gardner in the 2011 Carnegie Reporter (Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 6/No. 2, Spring 2011, page 50-53).

A generous gift from the Walter and Elise Haas Fund provided initial support for the Gardner program; Peter and Mimi Haas provided continued support in subsequent years. Additional funds have been awarded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York; the Educational Foundation of America; the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; the late Michael Walsh, trustee of Stanford University; and other foundations, corporations and individual donors associated with both universities.

In 2004, John Gardner Public Service Fellowship alumni formed the John Gardner Fellowship Association to support the program, promote the values exemplified by John Gardner, and encourage its membership to continue public service involvement.

John W. Gardner (1912-2002)

Biography of John Gardner

[The following article is adapted from the writing of John Hubner of the San Jose Mercury News, October 2001. Although John Gardner passed away in February 2002, we are continuing to use this profile (in the present tense) because it very much captures his spirit.]

Who today in American society feels comfortable discussing such virtues as grace, selflessness, decency and optimism? What can we use as a touchstone for our best instincts of service and civility? Where, outside of the rare sports legend, is the beloved public figure who represents the best in us?

We can be glad that the last is not a rhetorical question. The answer is an ageless 89-year-old gentleman named John Gardner. Mr. Gardner combines the wisdom of a great chief like Black Elk with the optimism of a college student setting out to make a difference. So loved and so admired is Mr. Gardner that producing a ""balanced'' profile is an all but impossible task. You would look long and hard before finding someone who would say something even mildly critical about him.

The easy way to achieve such stature is taking the 49ers to the Super Bowl three or four times. Mr. Gardner achieved it the hard way. He was president of the Carnegie Foundation. He ran the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He founded Common Cause. He founded Independent Sector. He established the White House Fellows program. He is Consulting Professor at the School of Education at Stanford. He served under six U.S. presidents. He chaired, taught, led, inspired, wrote, mentored, thought, acted. The list of his public service accomplishments is pages long.

It is not difficult to tell what Mr. Gardner has done. It is more daunting to describe how he does it. In Mr. Gardner, you experience the best kind of citizen and leader-- optimistic, positive, curious, open. He has a disposition as sunny as a June day in his hometown of Beverly Hills. He tells funny and adoring stories about his mother. He tells stories about everything as a matter of fact, to illuminate his beliefs about being of service, working politically for sound outcomes and living a meaningful life. All of which may be one and the same for him.

There is a magic about Mr. Gardner. It's not the glaring charisma of JFK or the balletic brilliance of Bill Clinton. It is subtle, but it is powerful. No matter how good you feel when you are on your way to meet him, you are going to feel better when you leave. For instance, one day, two leaders of City Year, a youth service program, went to have lunch with Mr. Gardner in Palo Alto. He was their hero, their role model; they were thrilled to find him wearing his trademark seersucker jacket. They had come to visit the oracle. Most people feel this way when they are about to meet him for the first time.

But delivering the word from Apollo is not what Mr. Gardner is about. He wanted to hear what was happening with City Year. He wanted to learn from what they were doing. Who were the youth who were volunteering? What corporations were supporting the program? How were corporate leaders intersecting with civic leaders? Were partnerships starting to form? The City Year leaders soon lost the uncomfortable if heady sense that they were talking to John Gardner. Instead, they found themselves having a spirited conversation with someone who cared deeply about their work. Who, above all else, cared about making the system work. Coming from that perspective, Mr. Gardner said things that made them view even our legislative process with fresh eyes.

Someone happened to remark that Wilbur Mills, the legendary chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was the classic example of an "Inside the Beltway" power broker. "Mills was always referred to as 'the autocratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee,' " Mr. Gardner said quietly. "In fact, he was the least autocratic chairman ever. Mills knew exactly what every member of his committee wanted and made sure there was something for each of them in every bill. He knew the powers in the House and was always taking legislation to them, testing it, getting their input, then going back and refining it. Legislation he sponsored passed by overwhelming majorities because he never brought a bill to the floor until he was absolutely ready.'' Thoughtful nods all around the table. This was a story that was going to be told and re-told. An invaluable lesson that could come only from an elder statesman.

But the quintessential Gardner moment came near the end, when someone described a conversation with Roger Tory Peterson, the great ornithologist. When asked why he was so optimistic about the environment, Peterson had replied, "Because pessimism has no future!'' Mr. Gardner threw his head back and clapped his hands. "That is absolutely delightful,'' he said. "That is the spirit that built this country. That is the spirit we've got to figure out how to retain.''

Mr. Gardner is helping us to figure out how. For almost six decades, he has stayed the course of enlightened citizenship and leadership-- questioning but not cynical, certain but not arrogant, steady but not rigid, conservative and liberal, both in the very best sense. His eternally optimistic spirit lives in everything from civil rights laws implemented during his tenure at HEW to Common Cause and the John Gardner Fellowship for Public Service. He makes us better as a people. There is no greater legacy than that.

More Information

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Read about the current Gardner Fellows
• Other relevant Haas Center fellowships
• The John Gardner Fellowship Association website