Episode 2: Present: How students are engaging in service at Stanford
Description
Hear from students at Stanford about what it's like to engage in service, through Haas Center programs and beyond. Current students and recent graduates Enrique Flores, Noune Kachichyan, and Karsen Wahal talk about their experiences, moderated by Program Director for University Fellowships Meghann Tovar.
After the discussion, listen to a mini-interview with Cardinal Careers Program Manager Jessica Reynoso and former Community Impact Fellow Luis Quiroga about choosing service as a career after Stanford.
Chapter Markers
00:42 - Introductions for the roundtable discussion
02:33 - How did you get involved in public service?
10:02 - Can you share in depth about a particular program you are deeply involved in?
24:07 - What do you think makes for kind of an effective relationship with a community partner?
26:41 - What have you learned about ethical and effective service through your experience?
34:33 - Do you think service should be an essential part of academic life?
41:40 - How do you think you'll bring your public service experience into life post-Stanford?
47:20 - #ChoosePublicService Interview: Luis Quiroga
Download
Transcript
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;42;16
Narrator
Welcome to Mosaic, a limited series podcast on the past, present, and future of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, in celebration of our 40th anniversary. Through three episodes we'll be exploring how the Haas Center started, where it is today, and what the center's plans are for the future, all through the lens of why service learning is an essential component of student life. In episode two, we'll hear from students involved in Haas Center programs to get their insight on what it's like to integrate service into their academic life.
00;00;42;18 - 00;01;12;00
Meghann Tovar
Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I am looking forward to this discussion and to hear about your perspectives on what it's like to be a Stanford student engaged in service, and why service has been an important part of your academic life here at Stanford. I'm Meghann Tovar, and I'm the program director for undergraduate fellowships on the Cardinal Quarter team at the Haas Center. I thought we could start by going around the room and saying who we are and what kind of service we're involved with.
00;01;13;00 - 00;01;37;00
Enrique Flores
Hi, everyone. I'm Enrique Flores. I am originally part of the class of 2024 and majored in political science. I am currently a co-terminal master's student in sociology, and I have been a part of the Cardinal Quarter peer advising team for the past three years. In addition to that, I have also worked with Stanford in Government and also Stanford Habla, an ESL coaching organization on campus.
00;01;38;00 - 00;01;58;00
Noune Kachichyan
Hello, everyone. My name is Noune Kachichyan. I am class of 2027, majoring in political science and minoring in classics. I am a Haas Center Peer Advisor as well as a leadership member of the Stanford Matriculate team, which works in collaboration with the Haas Center, as well as the marketing coordinator for staff for Women in Politics.
00;01;58;23 - 00;02;32;00
Karsen Wahal
My name is Karsen. I'm originally class of 2025, although I'll be sticking around a little bit next year to finish up a master's. I am studying economics and math and doing my master's in Computer Science. I'm broadly interested in policy and research that informs policy and the programs I've been involved with in service at Stanford are focused on the Haas Center Peer Advising team, Stanford in Government fellowships team with Enrique, as well as being a two time RA in Otero, the public service theme dorm at Stanford.
00;02;33;00 - 00;02;51;00
Meghann
Wonderful. Clearly, you're all actively engaged in service. So, I think people are always interested in origin stories. So I was hoping you can tell us a little bit about how your service journeys started and what inspired you to get involved with service?
00;02;51;30 - 00;02;22;17
Enrique
I can think of my earliest memories in service being canned food drives for my elementary school. I think as I transitioned into middle school, there was various fundraisers or helping with a local basketball tournament that my parents helped run for the community that would award scholarships using the money raised from the basketball tournament. And then in transitioning into high school, I feel as though my interest in public service developed through working with my school's Latino club and also volunteering with local nonprofits in my area. And then as I transitioned to college, it was a bit difficult, considering my first year was online. And so not having that first year in person definitely had some barriers in terms of what I could help with and what I couldn't. I was still able to help remotely with a nonprofit organization called PODER, Oregon's Latinx leadership network. And working with them, I helped with their communications team and publicizing newsletters with resources. And when coming into Stanford, I was able to really dig in and dive deeper through working with the Cardinal Quarter Peer Advising team and helping create opportunities for students to pursue public service opportunities through fully-funded summers, in addition to also working with Stanford Habla to organize how we could have students on campus help coach ESL service workers on campus to work during their lunch breaks on their English capabilities.
00;04;14;10 - 00;04;26;00
Meghann
Awesome. I've known you, Enrique. Now for years, and I really like to think back on your elementary school years and canned food drives, so it's fun to hear where it all started. How about you?
00;04;26;24 - 00;06;11;59
Noune
Yeah, well, I think my journey, really my passion for public service really comes from my childhood. So I was born and raised in Syria, and I moved here about over a decade ago. And I think in that transition, I very quickly was aware of the privilege I now had with just being in this new country that had so many opportunities and resources that I didn't have in Syria. And so being here and in each step of my life in middle school and in high school, as I learned something new or or had access to this new stage of my life and had this new knowledge I never had before, it was my big question was, how do I give that back? And like the fact that I couldn't help back home in Syria and the political climate there, but I could have that agency and that impact here, it was just something I was very much aware of. And so coming into--that really shaped my values. And coming into Stanford, I really knew that service--I wanted to center service in my experience here at Stanford. And so, I got involved with Stanford Women in Politics at the very first fair. Haas Center does a lot of fairs throughout the year, but the very first fair we had, they were tabling there, and that really helped me get introduced a lot to the Haas Center because one thing that the Haas Center does is that we are the home to a lot of different organizations. And so just being there often and seeing the different staff members and events that they had, I was able to get even further into public service. And then to wrap up my freshman year, I just got a random email. We get a lot of those emails here at Stanford, and it's always worth checking. And it was from the Haas Center digest about becoming a peer advisor. And I was like, well, that sounds very interesting. And that really opened up a lot of avenues for me this year in working with different students, with different student organizations on getting access to Haas Center resources, planning events, and also planning my own events around public service.
00;06;12;00 - 00;06;37;12
Meghann
Thank you for sharing that. For listeners, if you've been to the Haas Center, you know that right when you come in, you'll see the BIRC room, and there's often peer advisors sitting in the BIRC room and I see your face often, and it's really interesting to get to talk to you to hear sort of your values and what motivates you too, so it's great that we get to go a little bit more in depth because I didn't know that about you.
00;06;37;15 - 00;07;22;00
Karsen
My interest in service stems from my family. My father is an immigrant. My mother is a child of immigrants. And something that they always emphasized to me growing up was how lucky I was. And, they were to be in the positions they were. And also, how many people contributed to them getting to where they were with their immigration here or my grandparents' immigration here and the struggles that they faced and how, without various service organizations or simply just nice people, they may not have been able to settle down and raise a kid and live genuinely good lives. And that sort of instilled in me the sense of purpose in giving back to my community in the way that this community has given so much to much of my family. And I think from a young age then I sort of knew that I wanted to be involved with public service more broadly. And in high school, I think that started to take shape a little bit more clearly. In high school, I became very interested in the world of policy and politics. It began in about eighth grade or so with the 2016 election. And later I joined the debate team and was very involved with a lot of different policy-related organizations. I think at Stanford, some of those interests have remained. I very much think that my core interests are still in the policy space, and I hope to spend most of my career in that area. What I realized when I came here was that I also very much enjoyed other subjects like math and computer science and statistics and economics and I've been very involved with those academic departments here and involved with research and thinking about how research can inform policy, and also thinking about more direct policy work. And like Noune and Enrique, I have also been very interested in bringing service to different students here through the various involvements with the Haas Center and with Otero, the public service theme dorm.
00;08;51;09 - 00;08;59;05
Meghann
Could you say a little bit more about the Otero service themed dorm tour? Because I think that's been a big part of, your experience at Stanford.
00;08;59;09 - 00;09;58;00
Karsen
Yeah. Otero is a four-class dorm with about 78 residents. A little over 50% are freshmen, and the rest are upper class students. All the students choose to live in Otero as a goal of taking part in our theme, which is the public service and civic engagement theme. The nice thing about Otero is you have this sort of shared community of people interested in public service and that brings people together and also allows students to access a whole wealth of opportunities related to service. We host various speakers who are involved in various service capacities. We have direct service events. We have a class that meets once a week to discuss service issues and meet with service leaders across the community. And I think if there's a student that wants to be engaged with service on campus, Otero is a really great place to live and meet other students interested in it, and also hear about every single opportunity you can imagine related to service.
00;09;59;16 - 00;10;16;26
Meghann
Yeah, awesome. We see so many students that live in Otero also spending a lot of time at the Haas Center and being involved in the Haas Center programs. Could you talk more specifically--you could even just pick one of the programs that you're deeply involved in--and talk about the work that you do in that program?
00;10;17;16 - 00;11;49;00
Enrique
Yeah, I would say that one of the programs I've been most involved in is the Cardinal Quarter Peer Advising team, which I've worked with Meghann on and also five--six other students as well as part of our team. And as a team, essentially, there's a really amazing initiative on campus called Cardinal Quarter, which, if you're not aware, essentially we provide funding of a base stipend of $7,000, which can raise or be augmented based off cost of living or also a student's financial situation, to encompass a wide variety of public service opportunities that can be in public interest technology. We have a CS+ Social Good program as well, in addition to also traditional public service in terms of human rights work or immigration work. And through that team, essentially, we help put on workshops to help explain to students what exactly it is they can do to help better their applications or find opportunities off campus to work for the summer. We also read the applications. We help interview. We get to know the applicants and hopefully help them ensure that they're a good fit for the organization they're working for. We want to make sure that as students transition into their summer opportunities, they're also well-prepared to understand themselves and also what they can contribute, and also what they can really learn from the communities they'll be serving. Overall, that team has been a really impactful part of my experience at Stanford, and it has been an absolute pleasure to be able to work with them and hopefully expand access to public service opportunities for all students on campus.
00;11;50;16 - 00;12;17;00
Meghann
And I just have to pause now and thank you, Enrique, for all your participation on the Cardinal Quarter program side. You've seen hundreds and hundreds of students go through Cardinal Quarter fellowships, and your advising and general support has been just essential in helping those students be really successful. And, I know you yourself completed Cardinal Quarters. You want to share a little bit about the Cardinal Quarters that you completed?
00;12;17;30 - 00;11;49;00
Enrique
Yeah. I have been very fortunate to have been able to complete Cardinal Quarters with different, I guess, groups or organizations on campus. My first summer was to do the Haas Center for Public Service, working for a legal aid nonprofit assisting LGBTQ plus asylum seekers in the US. Then my junior summer, through the Stanford in Government Stipends team, I was able to work for the Department of Defense's NATO and Europe Policy Office in the Pentagon. And this past summer, through the Center for Human Rights and International Justice on campus. I was able to be funded to do a Cardinal Quarter for the United Nations Development Program specializing in global health. And I think each experience has really helped me better understand a variety of different issues and also different career paths that maybe I wouldn't have considered otherwise and has really made a positive impact on my learning, because I've been able to take what I've learned in the classroom and really apply it in a policy setting in the real world, which has been incredibly useful.
00;13;22;00 - 00;13;42;02
Meghann
Thanks for sharing. And it's been great for me to see over the years how those experience have really kind of shaped your academic and your kind of career thinking and trajectory. Okay. Noune, how about you? Would you like to talk a little bit about some of the specific work that you do in any one of the service programs you're involved in?
00;13;42;07 - 00;15;13;21
Noune
Yeah. Well, starting with the whole center, as a peer advisor, there's a wide variety of things that we do. Primarily we advise students. And so we have office hours every week, five days a week, and at the BIRC room, like Meghann mentioned earlier. And so students are welcome to come in and stop by for an appointment, and to talk about how they can get involved in public service. There's a team of six of us. And so all of us are there throughout the week and we help students talk about their interests and their values and what they hope to not only contribute, but also gain from this public service. And beyond that, we also do work with student organizations. And so we have so many student organizations here, and many of them work with the Haas Center. And so we help them make sure that they have access to the different resources, too, whether that's booking a room or transportation to get to their service opportunities. And so we work very closely with them. And we also host our own events. And so, as a peer advisor, we each have our own sort of specialty areas as well. So for example, I'm pre-law, and so a lot of the events that I hosted over this year were around some of the interests I have, like sustainability, or immigration or just access to different public service opportunities. And so and those are the type of events that I helped plan. And we also do some more fun we call them BIRC breaks. And so we help invite students to come and, you know, Stanford can be a very stressful time. And so we also not only want to encourage public service, but also taking care of yourself and giving yourself those moments of break. And so we plan some fun things as well.
00;15;14;24 - 00;15;24;30
Meghann
I was wondering if there is kind of a common question that you get a lot from people that come in, just walk into the Haas Center for advising. Maybe it's first year students or students in general. What kinds of things do they tend to ask about?
00;15;25;24 - 00;16;22;06
Noune
I think the primary question I've gotten this year has actually been about Cardinal Quarter. So a lot of students come in asking how they can get involved in public service over the summer. And so Cardinal Quarter is obviously one of the biggest and easiest ways to do that in terms of there's a lot of support around it. There's the Cardinal Quarter team. The Haas Center does so many events around it. And with so many students having done it, it just kind of gets--the word kind of spreads. And so a lot of students come out asking about it. And so we that's the one thing that I love about being a Haas Peer Advisor. There's a lot of different student teams that we have. And as a general peer advisor, we kind of help in all those different avenues. And so I also learned a lot in that process of, well, that's Community Work-Study or the different education partnerships we have. We kind of get to collaborate and learn about all those different programs while we advise students as well. And so, yeah, primary thing would be Cardinal Quarter. I did one myself last year, last summer.
00;16;22;21 - 00;16;23;01
Meghann
What did what did you do last summer?
00;16;24;21 - 00;17;37;01
Noune
I worked with this nonprofit called Junior State of America, which is essentially a nonprofit that work with--during the summertime, they work with other organizations like the ACLU and FIRE to help plan the logistics for their summer youth programs. And so one of the programs I did with the ACLU, for example, was their National Advocacy Institute that they do annually in DC. I got to help plan many of the excursions that we did, including like a day on the Capitol Hill, going to different baseball games and just planning some fun, eventful and also educational events, for the students of that program. And all about--JSA's mission was about civic responsibility and instilling, you know, ideas of democracy and getting involved in that whole realm with the youth, which I think is very important in today's political landscape is to kind of encourage that early. And so it was a very fun experience. And I also got to work with FIRE in Philadelphia for a similar free speech summit. And so, Cardinal Quarter was able to fund me for that. And obviously I got to travel and work with a lot of different people around--you know, youth has always been my passion, is working with youth and mentorship. And so it was a great way to do that.
00;17;38;18 - 00;17;58;07
Meghann
Thank you. And I also wanted to just ask about your favorite event that the peer advisors had put on this year. It could be a fun BIRC Break or something a little bit more heavy in topic. But what event are you most proud of or thought was most fun, kind of stands out to you in your experience this year?
00;17;58;30 - 00;19;18;59
Noune
My very first event was, I think, pretty foundational in my mind. So it just comes to mind. I did an environmental justice panel. Sustainability was an issue that I got more into my freshman year. And so it was, you know, I think a lot of these service events are areas that we're interested in that we want to learn more about. And we hope other students are also interested. And so it was one of those type of events. And one of the classes I took last year was about sustainability and civilization. And so I had a wonderful professor named Rodolfo Dirzo, Dr. Dirzo. And so I thought of him immediately and reached out to him. And I collaborated with our Issue Area Coordinator in sustainability, Ava. We have Issue Area Coordinators here at Stanford who all kind of specialize in a specific area. And so I collaborated with her and the different community partnerships that she had connections with. And so we were able to get a nice panel, and it was a great event to really learn about environmental justice, what it means to have humility also in it, a lot of these communities that you work with and try to help, you know, you may have good intentions but it's also about the impact that you have. And so those are a lot of the questions that we addressed as well as the implications of this new administration on environmental justice. And so it was a very insightful and rewarding conversation.
00;19;19;00 - 00;19;27;59
Meghann
Thank you. Karsen, could you speak a little bit more about some of that work that you do in a particular program related to service at Stanford?
00;19;28;00 - 00;21;44;59
Karsen
Yeah. One program that comes to mind is the Stanford in Government Fellowships team. So I've been involved with Stanford in Government for most of my time at Stanford. And for context, Stanford in Government is one of Stanford's oldest public service organizations. It's focused on students interested in government and policy, establishing a community for them, and opportunities to be involved with policy. And since my freshman year, I was involved with the fellowships team. But the way that the Stanford in Government Fellowships work is that we have around 80 fellowships and stipends, where for about 60 or so, we place students into fully funded organizations in the policy and government space, and we have pre-arranged those placements. So we already have arrangements with organizations at the international level, like the world Bank or the UNHCR, or at the national level, like the Department of Defense or Department of Health and Human Services, or at the state and local level, like the Santa Clara County Office of Reentry Services or nonprofits like End Poverty in California. And we have prearranged these internships with these different organizations where they have agreed to take an intern from Stanford, and the Stanford in government team goes through a process to select an intern amongst a set of applicants, and they ultimately get that internship. We also have a stipends program, which funds students to find their own interests in their own internships in government and policy and allows them to sort of explore on their own without this prearranged placement process. And in my junior year, I was in charge of this program with Enrique, and we oversaw the process, expanded the program significantly. And I think it was especially impactful to me and Enrique because we both had done Stanford in Government Fellowships, and both were very interested in helping students find their career interests in policy and government. And I think working on that was very impactful and rewarding, and also just had a pretty significant impact, I think, on many students who were able to have amazing internships in government that they otherwise maybe would not be able to receive.
00;21;45;00 - 00;22;24;07
Meghann
Thank you for sharing a little bit more about Stanford in Government. I think it brings up this great point that in order to effectively and ethically do public service, we're thinking about the work we do on campus, but it also really involves work that we do with community partners. So you talked about some of the prearranged fellowships. It seems like a really big job to sort of arrange those fellowships and get those placements for students. Enrique or Karsen, would either of you be able to talk a little bit about the work that goes into kind of building those relationships and setting up prearranged placements for students?
00;22;24;09 - 00;24;06;59
Karsen
Yeah, I think each year builds on the next, which is really nice if you're coming in one year, because you have all of Stanford in Government's history of work to build off of. These relationships last because they're often first established by someone who has some connection to some organization. For example, I had previously worked at the nonprofit End Poverty in California, and so I reached out to them about hosting a Stanford intern, and they were interested. And that began them as a community partner for their fellowships program. But the way that these relationships endure and ensure that we can continue to send students to these different organizations is because we have continuity in the quality of the students that we're sending to the organizations. And many people on the organizational side remember how great their interns were for them and how helpful they were, and that encourages them to continue to accept Stanford students as interns. And so I think this really ties to this principle of reciprocity, where students are benefiting by going to these different organizations and gaining career experience while these organizations benefit a lot from Stanford students' willingness to bring their excitement to learn and energy and all of their learnings from the academics here at Stanford. And I think without that side of it, without students bringing very positive benefit to these organizations, they may not want to continue the partnership. But we've been lucky that the students, for the most part, that we send are really helping the organizations making a big impact and making the program much more sustainable in the long term.
00;24;07;00 - 00;24;33;59
Meghann
Maybe we'll just kind of continue on with this idea of community partnerships, because they are so critical to the service work that's done through the Haas Center. What do you think makes for kind of an effective relationship with a community partner? And you can maybe think back to your own Cardinal Quarters or service. What do you think's important in that relationship? Clearly reciprocity.
00;24;34;00 - 00;25;31;59
Enrique
I think one thing for me at least, working for the legal aid nonprofit--Immigration Equality was its name--my sophomore year was the collective-ness of the organization. Everyone was there with the goal of helping immigrants who were being persecuted on the basis of their sexuality or their gender identity, in addition to some other factors. I think being able to have a team that is inclusive and willing to work with everyone and is excited to do that work, I think you definitely feel a sense of belonging as well. And I think that if you're excited for the mission and so is the other team, as a student, it can be really inspiring and fulfilling to be able to spend your summer doing that and then hopefully see yourself in the future doing that same type of work or finding organizations on campus as well that maybe are also doing this type of service for different individuals.
00;25;32;00 - 00;26;41;06
Noune
I think also for our more long-term community partnerships--for example, I'm a part of Stanford Matriculate, which is a sort of a new partnership with the Haas Center the past few years. But essentially, Matriculate is a national nonprofit that works with high school students, first-generation-low-income high school students, to provide free college advising. And there's a ton of different chapters that Matriculate has. And just recently, we've now collaborated with the Haas Center and have a Stanford Matriculate chapter. So I'm lucky enough to be part of the leadership for that to recruit advisors, which are just Stanford undergrads that have a passion to help students apply to college and get access to these opportunities and resources that you would otherwise not have in overcoming educational inequities. And so it's something, I think the wonderful part about the Haas Center and its community partnerships is you might have never even heard of these different organizations and the impact they have and the impact that you can bring to them if it were not for the Haas Center to publicize it and to really bring attention to it with the undergraduate population here, undergraduate students, of course.
00;26;41;07 - 00;27;12;04
Meghann
So at the Haas Center, we talk all the time about the Principles of Ethical and Effective Service. It's kind of the cornerstone of what we do and how we think about engaging with the communities around us. And so I was hoping that we could hear a little bit about your reflection on things that you've learned about ethical and effective service through your experience, either by, you know, picking a principle or just speaking about ethical and effective service in general.
00;27;12;07 - 00;27;36;00
Enrique
I think when I first learned about, the Principles of Ethical and Effective Service at Stanford, I was really glad, actually, that Stanford had taken the time, specifically the Haas Center with faculty and students, to put in place, I believe, the framework for this, which started in 2001 or 2, I believe. 2002. And that we were thinking conscientiously of how exactly it is that we're having students engage with community members. I think that's something that for myself that I really strive to take into consideration is just humility. I think having humility for the work that you're doing, recognizing your positionality as a student coming from Stanford and engaging with this community, whatever background as well you come from regarding your ethnic or also socioeconomic status, I think that having that understanding of you wanting to be able to help certain individuals, but at the same time recognizing that you also have so much to learn about the context in the situation, especially if you're working with a community that you may not fully understand. I think for me specifically, for context, I work a lot with Stanford Habla on campus which, as I mentioned, helps teach English as a second language to Stanford's custodial landscaping staff and I think for me, something that I am really cognizant of is that I have the experience of being a Mexican-American but I don't necessarily know what it means to be Mexican entirely. I didn't grow up in Mexico. I didn't grow up in Latin America. And despite, being bilingual and also being bicultural, I also don't understand the position that some of these people that I'm helping may be coming from. So I think having the humility to, you know, bring resources to where they are. Maybe they can't necessarily do English class outside of when they're working. So we need to bring it during their lunch breaks and make sure that, you know, they don't have to take away time. Or if we want to help do something for the nighttime workers, understanding that it might be difficult to have them congregate at 10 p.m. for people working from 8:00 pm to 4:00 am, so maybe a Zoom class would be better. So I think having that humility to really try to take into consideration other people's circumstances and really step outside of your own, I think has been a really impactful tool to help meet people where they are and make as much positive change as possible.
00;29;36;01 - 00;29;43;59
Noune
I mean, I think Enrique said it very well. I think humility is also--actually Megan, I think when I did my Cardinal Quarter last year, you held a workshop.
00;29;44;00 - 00;29;44;59
Meghann
I did. Many.
00;29;45;00 - 00;30;54;00
Noune
Yeah, many, many. And I remember, humility was something that my group talked about extensively in how you approach these different service opportunities and knowing your positionality and where you're coming from. And like Enrique said, just being aware of that and also being open to being wrong I think is something that is very important, especially as a Stanford student and just a young adult. I think being wrong is something that is--that's how you learn and that's how you grow. And so just being okay with not knowing everything and also not having to have a say in everything and just being there and listening and just being an active listener I think is something that really opens up that pathway for interaction and for growth and for connection. And so I think that was something I had in mind going into my internship last summer with JSA, the nonprofit I worked with, and with how many students that these different programs hosted, I think I was just very much trying to be aware of, again, how I come off and how I portray myself and how I can best do that to support each of the students individual needs. And so that really helped me.
00;30;54;01 - 00;33;31;00
Karsen
I think for me, two things come to mind. One is, as Enrique and Noune said, certainly humility is one of the principles that is at the forefront for me. And I think, in addition to what was said earlier about how Stanford students must go into their own service commitments with humility, I think it's also important that they take that through them for the rest of their lives and their careers. I think something that has been very frustrating to me about parts of academia and policy, for example, is that people who are often doing research on certain communities or impacts or who are making policies often think that they know best in various situations when often they do not. And they haven't taken the time to really sit with communities and understand community needs and I think if more people in positions of power in the future did this, then surely society would be better off. The second principle that comes to mind has also been talked about before and it's reciprocity. I had a really interesting conversation a few weeks ago with Professor Larry Diamond, who's a professor in the political science department, about the idea of reciprocity, because something that I have been thinking about is spending a significant amount of time abroad doing some form of direct service, and there's sort of reciprocity on both ends, thinking about impact and benefit to oneself from contributing to a service experience. On the one hand, for example, I don't have medical training, and as much as I may want to help in some sort of volunteering in a hospital type capacity, it may be more difficult for a host organization to have me in that capacity than helpful for me to just be there. But on the other hand, something I was speaking to him about is how I wanted to have this direct service experience abroad and he was asking about why I should do this as opposed to use, for example, some of my technical skills and computer science skills to bring a more unique benefit to an area where people may not have that same skill set and weren't lucky enough to learn those things here at Stanford. And I think thinking about how can I best help the organization while also getting what I want out of a service experience is very challenging and something that I am wrestling with and probably will continue to wrestle with.
00;33;31;01 - 00;35;04;00
Meghann
Thank you. It's really great to hear all your reflections. And I'm not surprised that the three of you spoke about humility. As I read student reflections on their service work and their work throughout Haas and talk to them and just sort of hear about their experiences, humility really stands out. Mostly everyone talks about that in an area that's been a challenge, in an area that they've grown a lot. And I think that sort of speaks to the sort of profound learning experiences that come with doing service. Unlike other learning experiences that happened at Stanford, this idea of using your time and your energy and your expertise to serve others allows for this really deep learning. And even just thinking about, Noune, as you were saying, how you show up to do the work and, as Karsen and Enrique were talking about, the actual impact that you're doing too. So thank you for sharing. And I think this also leads to a really good question, which is sort of a big one that we're trying to answer with this podcast, which is why service should be an essential part of academic life rather than just an option or an add on. So what do you think about that idea or that question, should service be an essential part of students' academic life here at Stanford? Is it essential or not? Noune, you look like you've got it. You've got something on your mind. Share it with us. Yeah, well, I think the purpose of service, especially as students, I think it's challenge us to put our education in context.
00;35;04;01 - 00;36;20;00
Noune
Yes. Well, I think the purpose of service, especially as students, I think it challenges us to put our education in context. And so when you're sitting in a classroom and you're learning something, I think the primary question you should be asking is what is this knowledge for and who does it serve? And I think when you have that in the back of your mind as you're learning something, I think it really allows you to be more purpose driven in the academic work that you're involved in and really see beyond the classroom, am I going to--you know, you sit in a class and you learn something, or you're reading something for a class. And it's very easy to just forget about it very fast. Right? I think that's part of the quarter system we have here at Stanford is you learn something, and it's very easy to just move on to the next. You always have something to do, a new deadline and you kind of glide past it. And that's what service helps you do is have an intention behind it and see how we can really impact it beyond the classroom. And really, it's like a lens. It's not just an add on, but it's like a lens you put on in how this service is going to impact you outside of Stanford. And it's also, you know, I think like Enrique mentioned, with his Cardinal Quarter experiences, it kind of goes both ways. Your Cardinal Quarter experience informs your classroom work, and your classroom work impacts your work outside of that.
00;36;20;01 - 00;36;25;00
Meghann
Yeah. What do you think about this integration of service in academic life? Is it essential?
00;36;25;01 - 00;38;19;00
Enrique
I think it's a bit difficult to make such a broad claim. I think for me, it is essential. Personally, when I think of how I want to spend the rest of my life and I think of my time post Stanford, a big component of it will be service, direct service. However, I think through coming to Stanford, I've also recognized that there's a variety of different ways that service can look and how it can impact people. I think that, it should be, at least in our undergraduate experience, a opt-in, in a sense that people can opt into Cardinal Courses, which are more hands on learning experiences that people can take classes on that actually work in community and also impact people outside of Stanford. I think having those opportunities to do a Cardinal Quarter, which encompasses CS+ Social Good, also things in health policy and a variety of different things--I think having those resources available for people and students to be able to experience and really lean into that if they haven't previously done a lot of service work can be greatly beneficial. But I do think there is some concern with potentially making service a requirement for students. I think that it should really be student led from selves to want to partake in service in a traditional sense. However, I think that being able to provide these opportunities can be really beneficial. I think that Stanford has such a robust Cardinal Service program that I really don't think is matched to any other university. And I mean, this past year, we sent 600 Cardinal Quarter Fellows to work at 600 different organizations. Six hundred in the context of about 7000 undergraduates is definitely substantial. And I think that at least just having the opportunity to be present and something that people can opt into is an essential responsibility of any university.
00;38;19;00 - 00;38;37;00
Meghann
I really appreciate, what you alluded to a couple of times of just sort of meeting students where they are at in terms of both interest and availability, like different options for what service could look like. Karsen, what are your thoughts?
00;38;37;01 - 00;41;39;59
Karsen
I personally do think service, should be an essential part of a student's academic life, because I think it provides a form of education that is very different than the formal education that one gets in a classroom, but very important. I think, for a little bit of context I guess, there are a couple issues that I think exist with elite universities more broadly in this country. And I think one is there's this increasing pressure, and increasing over the last decades, to sort of funnel into certain career paths, things like consulting or tech or finance or things like that, where the share of students going into these fields has skyrocketed, and the share of students going into different fields or fields that are a greater diversity has dropped a lot. And I think this is a problem both for maybe society more broadly, where a lot of students who are very passionate about certain issues don't end up going into certain career paths that maybe are very beneficial to society. But also it's a problem for some students who often sometimes can go into these careers and end up regretting it and being sort of funneled into careers that maybe weren't the best fit for them. And I think one thing that service can sort of do to help address this is mainly just exposure to a lot more different things and different organizations and different people, and to help students realize their passions. I think if one is in the same environment for four years in a row and not exposed to many different organizations or service components, they may not find that passion that they have and end up being funneled into these sort of careers. I think the second sort of thing that comes to mind is how, at Stanford especially, it's very easy to be staying at Stanford and caught up in this community and these people for a very long time. And regardless of what career one takes, I think Stanford wants to make students be engaged and thoughtful citizens in their communities after they graduate. And I think if one does not have any sort of service experiences, it's a little bit more challenging. Definitely not impossible, but a little bit more challenging. Because you end up spending all of your time thinking about and spending time with Stanford students and professors and staying in this sort of classically ivory tower world. And if you do have service experiences, then you're more engaged with your community, and you can take that with you after you graduate regardless of whatever career path you have. And so I think service would help students maybe find some of their deeper interests and be more engaged citizens of the community. That's a very important part of the educational experience and I think a key part of Stanford's mission as well.
00;41;40;00 - 00;42;10;00
Meghann
Thank you. As we round out our time here, I start to think about you rounding out your time at Stanford and thinking about you graduating. And after talking with you today, it makes me actually just feel like I'll miss you, but also just feel a lot of hope. So for our last question, I wanted to ask, how do you think you'll bring your public service experience into life post-Stanford? Maybe we'll start with you, Enrique, who's graduating soon.
00;42;10;01 - 00;43;54;00
Enrique
I think as I round out my, this is my fifth year of being a Stanford student, I think that each story, every single person that I've gotten to interact with through whether Cardinal Quarter, through the students in Stanford in Government, through working for Immigration Equality through a Cardinal Quarter, each one has definitely demonstrated or taught me something. And I think it really has cemented my desire to use my life to work in public service, specifically in direct service.I found so much fulfillment and so much satisfaction in seeing my ability to use the resources that I have developed academically, financially, to be able to help other people. I definitely think a lot about my grandparents and the immigrant background that my mother comes from, and then her parents and also my dad's parents. And I think, as I think about this next step, I want service to be an integral part of whatever it is that I do. I definitely have plans to attend law school. And I would be--I could see myself definitely being an immigration attorney, similar to the work I did at Immigration Equality. And for me, I think that I am just very excited about the career that I'll be able to have in this space, and the learning I already feel I've gotten to experience, and the exposure I've gotten through the various Cardinal Courses, Cardinal Quarters, and just learning from other peers and students and their excitement and the excitement to collaborate with people to hopefully move the needle just a little bit by the end of my lifetime, to make the to make other people's lives better.
00;43;54;01 - 00;43;59;00
Meghann
Maybe we will pivot to you, Karsen, because you will be the next to leave the Stanford nest.
00;43;59;01 - 00;45;01;17
Karsen
I think my public service experiences here will definitely shape me for years to come. After Stanford, for one, I think it's definitely cemented my interest in public service and helped me clarify what I want to do with my life, my career interests, all of those different things. And two, I think definitely my public service experiences here have exposed me to a lot of different people and people who I really treasure and have learned a lot from and hope to continue to have relationships with after Stanford. I think my time at the Haas Center, for example, has been one of my most fulfilling times at Stanford. It's very much been a home away from home where I feel a deep sense of community and connection to everyone there and is something that I certainly will miss a lot, and I think just those people are people that I will bring with me after Stanford. And that's maybe the most impactful part of my public service experiences here.
00;45;01;18 - 00;45;04;00
Meghann
Thank you, Karsen. Noune?
00;45;04;01 - 00;45;25;10
Noune
Well, I still have a couple years until I graduate and will be sad to see the both of you go. But I think, like Karsen was touching on earlier, service here is a way to get exposed to different people and different ideas and different communities. And that's something that I've been trying to do as I figure out what I want to do after Stanford is to see what is it--direct service? Is it law? Is it policies, advocacy? Is there a way to kind of find the intersection of those different areas? And I think having those service opportunities here, going beyond the classroom during the summertime, is a way to work towards answering that question. And so that's something that I'm still in the process of trying to figure out what I want to do.
00;45;43;18 - 00;46;41;00
Noune
I think, like Enrique, law school is long term something that I'd want to do, but in terms of the actual work I'd be doing, I think that's a question that I'm still trying to figure out myself, but I think the Haas Center definitely helps in getting exposed to these different--you know, we have so many panelist events where you hear from alumni. I'm actually hosting an event later today with Stanford Women in Politics, and we have six alumni coming and talking about how they got interested after Stanford in working in law and policy and public service in general. And so having having access to those conversations and the different even the Haas Center staff who all had their own experiences in coming into Stanford and helping students kind of follow that same path. I think I'm just trying to take advantage of as much opportunities and people and interactions as I can. And so that's where I'm at right now. But I'm excited to see what comes next.
00;46;41;01 - 00;46;01;04
Meghann
Me too. Well, Enrique, Karsen, Noune, thank you for being here today. It was great to speak with you. And thank you for all your contributions to the Haas Center.
00;46;51;19 - 00;46;55;08
Enrique, Noune, Karsen
Thank you. Thank you.
00;46;58;10 - 00;47;19;59
Narrator
For our final portion of the episode, we're highlighting past and current Cardinal Careers postgraduate fellows for our hashtag Choose Public Service campaign, which features alums who have pursued a career in public service. Our Cardinal Careers Program Manager Jessica Reynoso will interview a past or current fellow about their career in public service.
00;47;20;00 - 00;47;42;00
Jessica
Hi and welcome to this interview for hashtag Choose Public Service. I'm Jessica Reynoso and I'm joined by 2023 Community Impact Fellow Luis Quiroga. The Community Impact Fellowship places graduating Stanford students into full-time jobs at partnering organizations. Can you start off by sharing who you are, when you graduated, and what you're currently doing?
00;47;42;01 - 00;48;02;00
Luis
Thank you so much, Jessica. My name is Luis Quiroga. I am a program manager at Foundation for a College Education. I graduated in 2023 with a bachelor's in international relations, and I am sad to leave FCE but excited about my next chapter starting my master's degree at Georgetown University as a Rangel Fellows to then join the State Department.
00;48;02;01 - 00;48;10;00
Jessica
Great. That's amazing. What moment or experience sparked your interest in public service?
00;48;10;01 - 00;49;51;00
Luis
For me, it's my life story. I grew up in Bolivia, separated from my mom. She had to live in the United States. And even though I am very grateful for having two moms--my grandma is like my second mom--it was a very painful experience for my family to be separated, and as I grew up, I am convinced that it shouldn't be like that. Families should be able to thrive, to live their full potential in their own homes. And I was always motivated to make that better. Every place of the world has this potential to allow people to live well. And the second thing I think is, during high school in Bolivia, I loved history class. Learning about Bolivian history made me understand that who is in the room matters a lot. Who is in leadership matters a lot. Because they are the ones who are making decisions, who are going to impact future generations. And in the case for me, a pillar that I really admire in Bolivian history is the rescue of democracy after a period of dictatorships in the 70s. And I am just very inspired by the bravery and also by the decisions they took that allow us to live in democracy right now. And when I immigrated to the United States, I had to learn American history. And it was just such an inspiring story from the very beginning of people who devoted their lives to public service, to make the right choices. And I think that's why America, the United States is a land of opportunities. Regardless of where you come from. And I am an immigrant. And I felt that I had many opportunities like this one right now. And I feel inspired by that. And I want to be part of that in the future.
00;49;51;01 - 00;49;58;00
Jessica
That's beautiful. Can you talk about what you are currently doing at FCE?
00;49;51;01 - 00;51;00;59
Luis
So I am a program manager at Foundation for a College Education. This is an organization that has existed for 30 years, serving students, high school students, from East Palo Alto, which is an underserved community, to access college and graduate. And my role there is I work with the college students. I manage in particular two programs, the mentorship program and the mental health program. So pairing students with the mentors, volunteers, and also with the parents, helping organize monthly meetings with a therapist for them to have relevant discussions. The other 50% of my work is work as a coach. So we meet with the students periodically, at least twice per semester. So I go over the academic planning. And also the other part is used to ask what are their goals and create a strategy. But more importantly, I think is to serve as the accountability. So okay, we met last time. We agreed to do this. So what have you done? I just empower them to keep growing.
00;51;01;00 - 00;51;06;00
Jessica
And what are you most proud of having accomplished during your fellowship at FCE?
00;51;06;01 - 00;53;13;00
Luis
I have two answers for that. One is my job interview answer, which is helping us start a mentorship program. So the program is started with me. I helped recruit volunteers, recruit the students, create the process to have students in the program. And we had a great success the first year. All the students got accepted into unpaid internship. And I was also able to work in the second year. So starting a curriculum on networking, doubling the capacity of the program. Now we have 15 students there. And also use my network at Stanford getting some mentors for the students. So even though I am very sad because I wish I could continue being part of the program, I am very happy that I created the foundation that this program is able to continue for the years ahead. My personal response, I think it's working with students because their achievements, when I feel that I have a small role in them achieving something, I feel very proud in those moments, in particular with students who are not taking the conventional path, like they might be taking more years to transfer from community college to school, or they may use post school. And I think I offer--because FCE is getting more program managers, we're able to have more capacity to reach out to them, to send a text message. Hey, how are you doing? I know we haven't talked but I just want an update. And they provide very--I think they really appreciate that someone cares. And I am happy that I was able to be that person for them and to see them grow. Like, hey, Luis, I am doing fine. I am taking classes. This is what I learned. This is what I am trying now. From the moment we started working together, I can see the growth. So personally, that's what I am most proud of. And as I tell them, I mean, we can continue being in touch even though I am not part of FCE and I will hope to see their growth in the future. I am very confident of that.
00;53;13;01 - 00;50;32;23
Jessica
That's wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing about your public service journey and the impact and legacy that you are leaving at FCE.
00;53;24;00 - 00;53;24;28
Narrator
Thank you for joining us for this limited series podcast exploring the origins and impact of the Haas Center for Public Service to understand why service learning is a critical part of the academic experience. For more information about the Haas Center, please visit us at haas.stanford.edu.