Episode 3: Future: Planning for the next 40 years of the Haas Center
Description
What will the future look like for the Haas Center for Public Service, and service learning in academia more broadly? This is the topic for this roundtable discussion with the Haas Center's Executive Director Yi-Ching Ong, Faculty Director Juliet Brodie, Chair of the National Advisory Board Leela Stake, and former Faculty Director Co-Chair Larry Diamond.
After the discussion, listen to a mini-interview for the #ChoosePublicService campaign with Cardinal Careers Program Manager Jessica Reynoso and current Gardner Fellow Karen Arellano-Cruz on pursuing a career in public service after Stanford.
Chapter Markers
00:40 - Introductions for the roundtable discussion
01:27 - What is the role of public service in the university?
07:05 - Why are the Haas Center's offerings an essential part of academic life?
14:30 - Where are we today, and how does this reflect the evolution of the Haas Center over time?
20:32 - What is currently working, and what are areas for growth?
27:43 - What is our vision for the future of the Haas Center?
34:28 - How do we realize our vision?
42:56 - How is the Haas Center playing a role in helping students find belonging on campus?
47:06 - #ChoosePublicService Interview: Karen Arellano-Cruz
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Transcript
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;38;09
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 three, members of the leadership team at the Haas Center will talk about what the center's future will look like.
00;00;40;11 - 00;00;59;00
Yi-Ching Ong
Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining this roundtable discussion. I'm excited to talk with you all about what our vision is for the future of the Haas Center. Before we dive in, let's quickly introduce who we are and what our relationship is to the center. I'm Yi-Ching Ong, executive director of the Haas Center.
00;00;59;01 - 00;01;05;00
Leela Stake
Hi, I'm Leela Stake. I'm chair of the National Advisory Board at the Haas Center for Public Service.
00;01;05;03 - 00;01;10;00
Juliet Brodie
And hi, I'm Juliet Brodie. I'm the faculty director of the Haas Center for Public Service.
00;01;10;01 - 00;01;27;00
Larry Diamond
Hello, I'm Larry Diamond. I'm a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. And I had the privilege of, some years ago, serving as the faculty co-director of the Haas Center for Public Service.
00;01;27;01 - 00;01;32;00
Yi-Ching
Wondering if we can start with the big question. What is the role of public service in the university?
00;01;32;01 - 00;03;47;59
Larry
Well, I can begin by saying that I think there are multiple roles for public service in the university. We should probably begin with what it does for the university and what it does for our students. I think it is well established that students learn best when they learn in multiple ways and when they link theory with evidence and theory with experience. And so, experiential education is very important to deepening, broadening, and making, I'd say, more sophisticated and applicable to the future the ideas, skills, methodologies, theories, and arguments that students are absorbing in the classroom. Experiential education can be, you know, practice or professional oriented internships and research opportunities that are not really public service. But much of what our students do--and not only in the social sciences, but in the humanities and wrestling with ethical and moral questions, and even in computer science and engineering--can benefit from opportunities to apply it in the real world in ways that also serve a community in some way. And then I'd say, in the spirit of the extremely important book by the president of Johns Hopkins University, Ron Daniels, who asks the question in the title of his book, What Universities Owe Democracy? I think universities do have an obligation to give back to society, to be of value to society, to be of service. And one of the things we're trying to do at Stanford University, and have wanted to do since the founding in 1891 in Jane Stanford's original vision of Stanford to be of service to humanity, is to give back and to create a better world, a better United States of America, a better local community, and a better democracy.
00;03;47;28 - 00;04;59;00
Juliet
Well, then I'll just add on to that. Larry's talking a lot about the how and how impactful experiential education is across all disciplines and all schools, that marriage between what you're learning in the classroom and taking it out into the world. And I want to pick up on also the why. We know that students come to Stanford wanting to make a meaningful impact on the world. All of the surveys show that. Our interactions with them tell us that what they want out of their education is the tools and the habits of mind, and the ethics, and the frameworks for thinking about how to use their education to make the world a better place, whatever that means to them. We know there are a lot of challenges in that regard, and that that may look like a different path depending on a different--each student may have their own vision of what that means, but we know that part of what it means to be a Stanford educated person. We want that to mean engaged citizenship in whatever community you're going to be a part of. So public service at Stanford is equipping you for public service in your life.
00;04;59;01 - 00;07;05;14
Leela
Yeah, I love that. And maybe what I can share. I graduated in 2003, so it's been a minute, but a lot of its talked about in terms of the Stanford bubble. Right? When people hear about Stanford, they see the pictures of the beautiful Palm Drive and the Oval and everything that looks so manicured and pristine. And that's wonderful. And yet, when you get here, I think if you're trying to do what Juliet said in terms of living a life of purpose, you want to break out of that bubble, and you don't want to wait four years to do that. And so what I think I experienced --and I was really fortunate to come across the Haas Center early on in my freshman journey-- was really taking the privilege of being here seriously. You earn it. Obviously, you have to work really hard to get here, but it's also a privilege once you're here to be at one of the leading institutions in the world. And I think the question is, what are you going to do with that privilege? And being able to, again, bridge theory and practice and come out of your ivory tower earlier in your journey is something that I think the Haas Center really helps enable in terms of, not only just aspiring to a life of service once you leave here, but how do you actually have that experience when you're here? And I think some of the things that are maybe not as well understood that are really important that have been meaningful to me, is that there are many ways to conceptualize service. So many people may be at their high school. They had a community service requirement. They were trying to log their 40 hours or 100 hours or whatever to kind of check a box. But service can mean many different things. And I think that's what the Haas Center, and Cardinal Service really helps uncover for people here, which is that it can be about how you are a responsible business person. How you give back through your philanthropy. Yes, it could be direct service. Government service is a hugely important piece of this. You could become a social entrepreneur. So whatever service may mean to you, it is about exploring all of those different pathways, trying to understand them better. And then through the principles of service, understand how you go about that. So it's not just what you do but how you do it, which I'm sure we'll talk a little bit more about.
00;07;05;15 - 00;09;25;07
Juliet
I think the integration of Haas Center programing with the Stanford academic experience is really special at the Haas Center. We at the Haas Center do lots of things that are co-curricular as well as curricular. But focusing on the curricular opportunities, the courses that we sponsor and promote, the Cardinal Courses. They happen in over 50 departments across the campus. These are courses that explicitly have community engagement as part of the teaching model, that each and every one of these courses has a community partner. Some are local, as you were saying, Leela, getting off the farm locally. Some may be a research course that has a partner far afield, but nevertheless, the work of the course is integrated with something that that partner needs, that the Stanford community, the Stanford Academic Enterprise, can activate or accelerate something that this partner needs in their work in the world.So that integration is absolutely essential at the course level. We also do all kinds of research projects in the graduate school, promote community, engage research projects for graduate students. But I also think it's important to talk not just about the purely curricular offerings as the moments of integration, but as you were saying, the principles, Leela. We also really think about a quasi academic framework, even for the co-curricular engagements that we offer to students. That is to say, we don't just drop students in a community and say, go do your work. We provide a framework of reciprocity, humility, preparation. We make sure there's scaffolding for all of the programs at the Haas Center that really make them integrated into a student's intellectual and moral development throughout their years. So whether it's a literal academic credit-bearing course or research project or a noncredit bearing but nevertheless scaffolded experience, we really see all of the service that goes on at the Haas Center as essential to the academic enterprise.
00;09;25;08 - 00;12;17;00
Larry
Yeah, I think that's a great answer, actually. I would just add a few things. First--and many of them are based, Leela, on my own experience as a faculty member in political science, international studies, with a lot of connections to partners overseas. So, many students who have had internships, both domestically and internationally, have been inspired to then go on and do research based on their service experience. It's given them an idea maybe about educational advancement and equity or about civil society in another country and democratic deepening or about some aspect of environmental defense or progress that they saw a new angle based on their internship. So I have supervised honors theses and advised others, senior honors theses that were inspired or facilitated in some way by a Cardinal Quarter internship. We have even had students who had the dual benefit of being in a country in a summer where they could do their service center internship during the day and their interviews for their senior honors thesis almost in the evening or on weekends or something. There are tremendous synergies here. And I think that, as I said in my first comment, learning cannot be, it should not be, isolated from the real world. It should not be purely theoretical. It's got to engage real human beings, real organizations and real world challenges. And I think learning, whether it's in the Cardinal Courses or in the individual evolution in the thinking and insight of our students, is enriched, is deepened, is inspired when students experience real world problems. I know that many of our students, even who may be headed toward becoming physicians, have had their pathways toward becoming medical practitioners deeply affected by, for example, some of our service opportunities to render medical care in the Central Valley or possibly travel down on a different type of service learning course to provide medical services in another country. So synergy is a word I would really underscore.
00;12;17;00 - 00;13;17;15
Juliet
And if I could just pick up on that, Larry, I love the way you're emphasizing, we don't think about service and public service in the university as a one off thing that you just do once one quarter, one volunteer opportunity, one course. Instead, we're really trying to build a structure that has, as you're describing, that synergistic growth trajectory that goes from exploring when you first get to campus, where does this bubble stop? What's on the other side of the bubble? Exploring it, then going a little deeper into your academic interests. How do my academic interests impact the world? And then thinking, well, maybe I should go off campus and then really cultivating your own leadership and, frankly, your launch off campus, out of this place into the world. So we really want to be providing an architecture of experiences, not just one offs, but really integral to your entire learning journey while you're here.
00;13;17;16 - 00;14;48;00
Yi-Ching
Those are both such wonderful points, and I think Juliet spoke about the rigor that service offers. You know, how we create that conceptual scaffolding for students. And Larry, about the synergy, the idea that service can be sustained and can iterate and we can create these layered experiences for students. And to that, the only thing I would add is just to really underscore one of our values around hoping that service can be for all Stanford students. And we really see public service as something that you know, students, no matter their field or their discipline, can and should engage with. And, you know, there are so many ways. Larry shared the example of physicians. But, if you're a scientist, if you're an engineer, your work is meant to touch society and to be able to speak to what community need is, to be able to share the value of that work, is so vital. And really thinking about, what are interesting questions to ask? What does the world demand of us and to let that drive curiosity is also a really exciting thing that we hope that service can bring. From there, I'd love to think a little bit more about where we are at this point in time, as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Haas Center. So where do you think we are today, and how does this reflect the evolution of the Haas Center over time?
00;14;48;01 - 00;15;51;00
Leela
It was so interesting to be a student. I guess now it's halfway--I was a student in 2003 graduating, so it was about halfway through Haas' journey. So as we celebrate the 40th anniversary, I think about there was already a lot in place when I was a student here. There was an actual physical space which people in the early days maybe didn't have. But Cardinal Service, which is just celebrating its ten year anniversary, didn't exist yet. So I had this really incredibly deep experience. I feel like I took all of--I spent so much time at the Haas Center. It was a home away from home. And yet one of the things I think I wished as I was leaving the Haas Center is that it would be available to more students after I went. And that has certainly happened with Cardinal Service, and I think even more so as we look ahead, there's an opportunity to broaden even more. So we want to make sure that people have the real depth of this experience as it relates to service, but also that we're reaching every student and that this is an integral part of the learning journey that they have when they're out at Stanford.
00;15;51;01 - 00;17;17;01
Juliet
I love that answer, and I would add more about where we are today as someone who has been at the center only for four years, so four of the 40, and sort of came to it in a version of its current state. I find what's striking to me about how the Haas Center is right now is this incredible network across campus. It really is. The Haas Center is the home away from home. We are so privileged to have this beautiful house, and we love to welcome students into our physical space and make room for them to enjoy one another's company. So the Haas Center is a very special place. But public service is so much bigger at Stanford than the Haas Center and part of our our mission and I think part of where we are today is really having expanded notions of service throughout our academic enterprise to all the schools, all of the schools, all departments. You don't have to just come to the Haas Center. But we are sort of--one metaphor we use for it is we are the front door to service across campus. And I think that's really a very distinctive feature of where the Haas Center is today as navigating this. We are a place and a home that we love, but we also are a door across campus and to the world, frankly.
00;17;17;02 - 00;20;31;59
Larry
Yeah, and I would add that the language that the Haas Center uses that it is the hub for the proliferating engagement of units all across the campus--schools, institutes like the Woods Institute, the Freeman Spogli Institute, and so on--I mean, unless there's going to be a kind of chaotic proliferation, there needs to be a hub that coordinates, inspires, integrates, and provides something that you, Juliet, and you, Yi-Ching, both and I assume you, Leela, as well, keep returning to which is the Principles of Ethical and Effective Public Service. You know, we want to do this well and we want to do this ethically. We don't want to just do it without some mindfulness. I would say a couple of things about where I think we are, if I can broaden that not just to the Haas Center, but to Cardinal Service in general. When we created Cardinal Service about ten years ago, we hoped that it would help propel Stanford to really being a public service university where there'd be a general expectation that, if not every student, most students who come here, particularly at the undergraduate level, would do and would want to do--I don't think we ever want to make it a requirement--some form of public service, and you need to create more opportunities to do that well. So I think one of the things that's happened, you would have the numbers better than me, but I think that over these years there's been about a 50% or more increase in Cardinal Quarter opportunities. I think it was around 400 or so ten years ago. It's over 600 now. So that's something we can take pride in. I hope we'll get to a point where we can expand that further. Because we know there's unfilled demand. On the challenging side, I think we just need to say this. We are at a very challenging moment for democracy. Globally and in the United States, we have big challenges of political polarization and so on. And I think this engages what we're trying to do, to create a more inclusive and mutually respectful society, to create thoughtful citizens. I think we're learning that democracy, as one of our late, great colleagues George Shultz, the former secretary of state, so often said is not a spectator sport. And so I hope we are creating lifelong citizens of democracy who will be responsible citizens and not narrow, polarizing, or checked out Democratic citizens. And I think this creates at the moment we're at some special challenges and burdens on universities and on the Haas Center for Public Service.
00;20;32;00 - 00;23;02;30
Juliet
One area for growth is just expansion, just making the extraordinary opportunity of doing a Cardinal Quarter that is a full-time stipended public service experience over the summer, making that incredible, scaffolded with Principles of Ethical and Effective Service and faculty mentorship, making that available to as many students as are actually prepared to do that. That's a big, daunting challenge because, as Larry said, our applications for these experiences far outstrip our capacity to do them. And it's not just a question of funding for the students summer stipends, but it's also a question of the staffing and the faculty and all the stuff that makes that an intellectually rigorous experience and one from which they can meaningfully grow. So I think that is an obvious area of growth. The other thing I would say picking up on Larry's point is I think we are all leaning into democratic practices as an essential component of public service. It's not just a question of doing good in community, but an even more intrinsic sense of public service that maybe one of the most important services we can all play, we can all make to our public life, is the ability to talk to people with whom we have some fundamental disagreements, to get out of our silos, and to be able to engage meaningfully in conversation and dialogue and compromise. This is the essence of democratic life. And I think we are all at Stanford, but including the Haas Center, looking for ways to grow that part of our curriculum and to support our students in that capacity as well. It's a somewhat different way to think about public service. It's the public service of being a citizen who understands compromise, democracy, and how to function in the modern world, because we're at such peril, as we see political violence and polarization increasingly on the menu. And Stanford has to play its part in reducing that and giving people other tools with which to resolve disputes on the most pressing issues of the day.
00;23;02;31 - 00;25;49;18
Larry
I think that's a great point, Juliet. And it comes in some ways at a fruitful or propitious moment at Stanford because we have a new president, Jon Levin. We have a relatively new provost, Jenny Martinez. And they have really established this as a priority for academic life and particularly undergraduate education at Stanford. The elevation of building up the skills, the kind of intellectual and social muscles or reflexes of mutually respectful dialogue and engagement and dialogue across difference, civil discourse. There's more and more investment in this in the curriculum and I'd say normative encouragement of this. We have this initiative, E Pluribus, that's trying to develop this that originated in your school, the Stanford Law School. And so I think one area for growth is a lot of synergy or interaction between what the Haas Center is doing on this and what's going on elsewhere, particularly academically, at Stanford. I think that a second area for growth is I'd like to see us do more internationally. And we have more--the student body has changed, I think, or is changing in some important ways. One of them is we are increasingly every little bit a bit more an international student body and in ways that are almost hard to depict quantitatively, because I'm finding more and more of our students are kind of they're half international and half inter American. They might have been born somewhere else but gone to high school here or they have very close family ties abroad, but we have more and more foreign born students among our undergraduates. And the world is shrinking. The challenges of environment, health, democracy, they're all increasingly borderless and are interacting. So I hope we can do more about. The third thing I would cite, and I do think it's a real challenge, is--we have to kind of be candid about this. The student body has become more of a STEM student body than it used to be. 1000 undergraduates out of our 7000, maybe a bit more, are computer science majors. So I'd love to see us do a little more thinking and a little bit more innovation about how the practical experiences they want to have as they develop their skills can have a public service component to them.
00;25;49;19 - 00;27;18;21
Yi-Ching
I think a lot about that question that Larry just raised. How can we meet students where we are and recognize the growth of interest in computer science in all areas and engineering? And we see, as Larry shared, an underrepresentation of students from those majors in our programs. And we know that it's not for lack of their desire to serve the world and to have positive social impact. So I think it's for us to develop some of those opportunities that lie at the intersection of their academic and technical preparation, and to help connect that to mission-driven work that is grounded in our Principles of Ethical and Effective Service. I think that we have an amazing base to work from in where we are with Cardinal Service, in the range of programs that we offer across all different modalities. And as we think about areas for growth, it's really, you know, trying to track on student demand, as we shared, trying to cultivate student demand where perhaps it hasn't existed as robustly, and then also to make those principled decisions about what really is important in education. So that's the things that Juliet lifted up around how do we educate for citizenship and leadership and encourage students to grapple with those difficult questions?
00;27;18;22 - 00;27;40;00
Larry
Another way in which I would like to acknowledge the very bright future of the Haas Center for Public Service and I'd say the pretty promising moment we're at is that I think we've got great leadership right now. So I'd like to acknowledge and celebrate the three of you, and thank you for what you're doing.
00;27;40;01 - 00;27;41;28
Juliet
Well, we're standing on great shoulders.
00;27;42;02 - 00;27;57;00
Yi-Ching
Thank you so much, Larry. So building on what we just reflected on--where we are, where there are areas for growth--could you speak a little bit more about your vision for the future of Haas? What do we hope to do for our students and for the communities that we engage with?
00;27;57;01 - 00;30;42;08
Leela
Yeah, I feel like we've talked a bit about the vision for students. I'd love to talk a little bit more about what we would love for communities to experience about us, especially at this moment where it feels like higher education is experiencing an existential crisis. And I think part of that is that higher education and the value of it is misunderstood, and probably because we haven't had enough deep connections between universities and community members. And so I think part of what is exciting about the vision for the future, and I think we already have started to do this in some ways, is how do we actually expand and reach out more to different communities that maybe feel like they have not benefited from, but would love to have the expertise and experience of what Stanford can offer them? I think back to my own experience, and I was so fortunate to have the experience of having Alternative Spring Break. So this was a time when I was able to spend my spring break in a service learning atmosphere, and I went on a rural issues trip. So I had never been in an experience like that, but I was in John Day, Oregon with someone who had come from that community. And it was an incredible learning experience to, again, get to interact with people who maybe had, certainly had a different way of life than I had had. But certainly also probably had different politics or beliefs and being able to bridge some of the connections and getting past some of the polarization that exists today requires actually getting to know people who think differently than you. So we talk about that in an abstract way, and it's one thing to do that in a lab or bring people together for, you know, one day, get to meet each other and talk about things. But if you actually can have it grounded and doing something that's of benefit to the community, what an amazing experience that can be. And I've been really heartened as chair of the National Advisory Board to learn a lot more about what programs are existing in terms of going really deep and having extended partnerships alongside the community and making sure that we are not just doing things that benefit students, but we are really asking the questions and talking to community members about what they need to make sure we're not just increasing our own learning and education for students, but we're really asking, what do community members need from us that they wouldn't otherwise get? And also evaluating at the end to make sure that it wasn't just in theory something that would be valuable to the community, but actually did we achieve those outcomes? And if we didn't make sure that we continue to improve for the future. But I think what is really exciting is that a lot of that feedback is coming back from some of the local community partnerships that have been built with very favorable outcomes that I think can give us a lot of wind in our sails to think about expanding exponentially in the future.
00;30;42;09 - 00;32;53;00
Juliet
Wow, Leela. That was so beautifully said. I could not agree more. And I think you've raised two of the principles of ethical and effective service that are so important, reciprocity and evaluation. And I agree that in this moment where the value to society of institutions of higher education has really been put under the microscope, and not from its friends. And so it's easy to talk about breakthroughs in medical science, breakthroughs in technology, all of which come out of research institutions like Stanford. But there is additional value that our institutions provide to society. But if we do so with that reciprocity and in partnership with community, for us to just go around, oh, I'm interested in X so let's have a course on X. Of course, that exploration and pursuit of knowledge is so important, that innovation and faculty driven curiosity is a vital part of the academic enterprise. And we would never want to squash it. But by the same token, we also need to know what does the world need from us? How can Stanford uniquely add value not only to the whole world, but to our local region? We want folks who live near campus to feel that they're glad that they live near campus. Not just because it gives them access to Stanford's incredible health care, which it does, but also because they're likely to be touched by the university that is in partnership with the organizations that are important to them. We all know the long history of institutions of higher learning taking a lot out of communities. Right? We drive economies in a certain way. We bring a lot of cars and people to these, regions. And it's really important for us to think about how we can give back in a meaningful way that is driven by community. So these sustained partnerships that you're talking about are such an important part of the future I think for us.
00;32;53;01 - 00;34;28;00
Yi-Ching
Absolutely. One of the things I want to add to thinking about the importance of these sustained partnerships and their value for students is just thinking about the medium and long term outcomes for students, as well as what they're able to accomplish in their time that they are serving and contributing. One of the things that really excites me about the work that we do is that we're able to make impact, both in the short term, for students and communities, but also that we aim to plant seeds for students that are going to bear fruit decades in the future. And we think that the Principles of Ethical and Effective Service are really a touchstone for students and a compass that they can return to again and again as they move through their lives and their careers and as they lead in their various fields. And that's really, I think, an exciting way to think about our effect on students being amplified is that as they see these principles, as they grapple with them, as they see them in practice in these sustained partnerships, they are learning something about models. And they can come back to these ideas and to these ways of doing and being in relationship with community in ways that will really advance how they're able to be civic leaders and how they're able to make change in the world.
00;34;28;01 - 00;35;27;26
Leela
One of the things that's been really illuminating to me, as I've stepped in as chair for the board is really thinking more deeply about graduate students and their role. So I think it was eye opening for me that there are actually more graduate students then undergraduate students at Stanford. If you come here as an undergraduate--although I also co-termed so I guess I was a little bit of both--it's maybe easy to lose sight of that, but it's really important, I think, as we talk about this vision for the future, partly because graduate students sometimes are here for longer. They're a little bit more--they're further down the road of their learning journey. And so, they maybe have even more they can add and can add that kind of sustained component to service and being of service to the community. So that's one thing I'm excited to see more of in the future. I know that we've made some inroads there in terms of trying to get more graduate students engaged in service, and it seems like there's even more we can do there and building more, also, connective tissue, as graduate students have so much to teach our undergraduate students as well.
00;35;27;27 - 00;36;56;00
Juliet
Yeah, I love that point. And going back to the academic integration, I don't think it's just, getting graduate students to participate in otherwise existing Haas programs, but also to create programs and to fund programs that enable graduate students in their cognate fields to engage in community-based research as part of their progress toward degree. So enabling graduate students to actually live out that community-engaged research agenda as they make their way toward a degree, whether they're heading themselves towards an academic career in which academic and community-engaged research may continue to be a part when they become a member of a faculty down the road, or whether they're going to go into policy or industry to nevertheless have experiences of tying their research in with community need. I totally agree. It's a real growth opportunity for us. The other thing I'll say as someone--as Larry mentioned, my home appointment is at the Law School and I think the professional schools is another place where, by definition, we at the law school are training people to serve clients. The medical school is training doctors to serve patients and to do research, of course. But stitching together some of the graduate and professional school programing in with the Principles of Ethical and Effective Service, to really be one Stanford trying to drive in this direction.
00;36;56;01 - 00;37;51;00
Yi-Ching
Absolutely. And I think Stanford is so uniquely poised to take advantage of these seven schools on one campus. Many of the graduate students that are here, and I was among them, specifically came to Stanford excited about an interdisciplinary education. And to that, we sort of add this additional layer of community engagement and what some people might call transdisciplinary skills that allow students to think broadly and capaciously about how to connect knowledge from all kinds of different domains, including the community. And that's something that graduate students are hungry for and excited to engage in. And also, as Leela shared, that's something that communities really invite, as graduate students can bring their skills and expertise and keep that cycle going.
00;37;51;01 - 00;39;01;00
Juliet
One specific example I might use to to talk about this and an opportunity for growth is the Law School does have this policy lab practicum program, which is, as you say, Yi-Ching, by definition it is transdisciplinary. It is academic courses designed to have a policy client that a faculty member will convene an interdisciplinary team of students to address this client's policy needs. So it might be something in environmental justice. It might be something in voting rights where we need computer scientists and data analysts and lawyers and demographers to do a project together, very much modeling and mirroring how real problems get solved in the world, where you get out of your disciplinary lanes and have to work on these teams. This is something the Law School has been--it's a way that the Law School has been inviting graduate students from other disciplines and undergraduates who are eligible to participate in some of these policy practica. So it's a great model for solving real problems in an interdisciplinary team.
00;39;01;01 - 00;40;58;00
Yi-Ching
I think one of the insights in building Cardinal Service that is still so relevant today is this idea that to be at its strongest, public service at Stanford needs to be jointly owned and something that all units and departments feel invested in. And that we as the Haas Center see our role in that as accelerating, as adding some key coordination capacity. It's bringing some resources to bear. But we certainly don't want to be the only carriers of public service. And so Cardinal Service I think was wonderful in kind of gathering together all of those champions of public service around campus and kind of giving them visibility, giving students an easier access point to see opportunities beyond their major that are relevant to them. So I think that idea of visibility and just making sure that students see public service and the breadth of opportunities that they can engage in that are service related is really important. I also think that there is a lot that we hear from our students around just what's in the water, what's in the air as they talk with their peers about what is important. And they keep hearing about sort of conventional notions of success that perhaps don't lead them to consider a life of service. And that's something that I think our students are very sensitive to. And certainly we don't control the student conversation nor would we want to, but how can we lift up those role models, those inspiration points for students so that they can see a pathway of public service that's invitational to them, that's accessible to them? I think that is something that we have a role to do.
00;40;58;01 - 00;42;56;00
Leela
I think a great example of that is the President's Award for the Common Good. So, that is new as of the past few years ago. But the fact that we have elevated service and giving back to society at graduation each year and at commencement is a huge deal. And I think it's one of the ways that we kind of can uplift service as something that should be celebrated and finding small and big ways to do that I think is extremely important. I would also say just a call to action. If you're tuning into this, I think we probably are among kindred spirits in terms of people who care about service. And I would just say, we need you to give with your time, talent, and treasure right now to help make this vision come true for the future. You are all points of light in the world in ter ms of what you are probably doing to be of service. You can help mentor and inspire the next generation of people to join these paths. We need to know and show young people that there are very viable and rewarding career paths and life paths in this area. It might be you serving as a board member. What you do as a volunteer in your community. It might your day to day job. It may be all of those things. You may have had many chapters to your story over the course of your life, but if you have been touched by service and want to be of service to us right now, I would just say we need those advisors, and we need people who are helping to inform our work, to help grow our work, to help find and partner with students to have meaningful experiences out in the community, to find viable career paths. And again, the financial resources took our programming over time. So part of that is just a call to you that if you are interested, we are very excited to have you and I hope you will connect with us.
00;42;56;01 - 00;43;22;00
Yi-Ching
One of the things we're thinking deeply about as an institution and at the Haas Center is how we can best support our students. And we are so lucky at Stanford to get a wide array of students from all around the world as Larry shared and of all backgrounds. Can you share a little bit more about how you see the Haas Center playing that role of helping students find belonging on campus?
00;43;22;01 - 00;44;46;00
Leela
One of the things that's on my mind a lot is particularly first-generation, low-income students. I think many people who came from those backgrounds don't necessarily feel like they can make the choice of pursuing public service as a student or even afterwards. And I think a lot of work has been done already to make sure that these are competitive opportunities for students to pursue over a quarter or in a course. And yet there's also probably more we can do over time to make sure that people feel like they can make these career paths. Part of that is matching people with those who have made the same career choices over their own lives. To be able to talk about how they navigated that for themselves. Part of it is making sure we provide the resources to them along the way. Some of that is financial, but some of it is non-financial as well to make sure that they feel supported in that journey because it is, yes, a cultural hurdle perhaps to choose a career in service anyhow. But if you are one or the only one in your family that is, tasked with sort of creating generational wealth or meeting other kinds of cultural expectations from going to a place like Stanford, we have to consider that, and we have to consider that I think very thoughtfully and intentionally as we move forward. And, again, we've made some inroads there and we can probably do more.
00;44;46;01 - 00;46;25;00
Juliet
Leela, that's such a great point. The other thing I would like to say about access to the Haas Center and to public service and to Cardinal Service that I think we're really focused on--as you said, Yi-Ching, what we're thinking deeply about--is how to make sure everyone feels that they can see themselves in service. And it's sort of an open secret that the Haas Center and its analogs at other institutions tends to be associated with a particular political liberal orientation. That's not necessarily empirically true. We do have a very diverse group of students associated with our programs and engaged, obviously, in our courses and research. But there is that association that I think is something that we should keep an eye on and be mindful that you don't have to think any particular one way about social problems to be committed to addressing them in a principled, rigorous way. And in fact, we will all do better work in solving the very serious problems that face our society if we are figuring out ways to work together to examine the assumptions and priors that we bring to the work, and to not be afraid of having our ideas tested, to engage in dialogue about alternatives. And we really want to make sure that the Haas Center is open to all students, and that what they can expect when they walk through those doors is to be treated with respect and to be offered multiple paths and support for their own personal journey of service.
00;46;25;01 - 00;46;37;00
Yi-Ching
Thank you so much to Juliet and Leela and Larry for being with us today. We really appreciate all the insights that you shared and are so excited for the next chapter of the Haas Center.
00;46;37;01 - 00;46;39;00
Leela
Thanks for your leadership.
00;46;39;01 - 00;46;39;30
Leela
Thanks, Yi-Ching.
00;46;44;08 - 00;47;06;00
Narrator
For our final portion of the episode, we're highlighting past and current Cardinal Careers postgraduate fellows for our #ChoosePublicService 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;06;01 - 00;47;09;06
Jessica Reynoso
Hi and welcome to this interview for #ChoosePublicService. I'm Jessica Reynoso and I'm joined by one of our just named Gardner Fellows Karen Arellano-Cruz. The Gardner Fellowship provides six fellows from Stanford and UC Berkeley with a full-time paid placement for ten months with a government agency, nonprofit, or other public interest organization. Welcome, Karen. Can you start off by sharing who you are, when you're graduating, and what you're currently doing?
00;47;35;05 - 00;47;56;00
Karen Arellano-Cruz
Thank you so much, Jessica, for that introduction. My name is Karen Arellano-Cruz. I'm currently a senior studying comparative studies in race and ethnicity, and I'm also doing an honors in education. I'm planning to graduate by the end of summer quarter, which is in August, and I'm really excited for the fellowship.
00;47;56;01 - 00;48;02;05
Jessica
Could you share about what moment or experience sparked you interest in public service?
00;48;02;08 - 00;48;37;00
Karen
I think a moment when I realized that I wanted to work in public service was when I realized how much support I received from an organization called Shine Together. And this organization helped me navigate both motherhood and school at the same time, especially because it was such a difficult experience. And I had just arrived with my son at Stanford and they really helped me be able to navigate those first few quarters. And so that experience and receiving those services really made me passionate about continuing to serve other young mothers.
00;48;37;01 - 00;48;40;00
Jessica
What are you involved with outside of academics?
00;48;40;01 - 00;49;26;00
Karen
So after being able to get through some of the barriers and challenges that I face navigating motherhood and school at the same time, I have been able to continue to participate with this particular organization. Now I'm an ambassador for them. So I mentor other young mothers and I also work with their development team to fundraise and just be able to reach out to other mothers as well. And besides that, I'm also part of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley. I'm currently doing one of their leadership organizing programs. So I am working with other Latinas who are interested in education, and we're building a project to reach out to other community members and continue to elevate education and Latinas.
00;49;26;01 - 00;49;30;00
Jessica
What are you most excited about as you start your fellowship?
00;49;30;01 - 00;50;13;00
Karen
So I'm really happy that I received the fellowship, and it was a big relief. And the reason why is because, as I just mentioned, I was having to navigate motherhood and school at the same time. So I didn't get a lot of experience, as much as I wanted to on campus. And so the fellowship will allow me to be in spaces that I wouldn't have been able to without the fellowship. And so I'm excited to work in a foundation and be able to learn as much as possible from experienced mentors. And it's just really an opportunity to fast forward what I couldn't do on campus.
00;50;13;05 - 00;50;21;27
Jessica
Well, thank you so much for sharing about your public service journey, Karen.
00;50;22;00 - 00;50;49;26
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.