Juna Nagle, '24, is a 2024-25 Community Impact Fellow. She is working as a program associate at the Partnership for Public Service, which is a nonpartisan nonprofit that works to strengthen the federal government. Juna sat down to talk about her fellowship experience during a recent interview ahead of her campus visit in October 2024.
Tell us about your organization and what kind of work you are doing there.
I am a Community Impact Fellow placed at the Partnership for Public Service. We're a nonpartisan nonprofit that does a lot of work side by side with the federal government. I specifically am on our Federal Workforce team, which is working to recruit the next generation of federal servants. I personally do a lot of work with the higher education community. We run an internship program for students, and we do a lot of outreach to early career applicants who are looking to get involved with the federal government to make the hiring system a more accessible process for them. We provide them with a lot of resources. That's mainly what I work on. That being said, the Partnership as a whole does a lot of different things. We have many different teams, so my work doesn't necessarily reflect the overall work of the Partnership, but it is one of our priorities in supporting a better federal government.
What got you interested in this kind of work?
I hadn't heard of the Partnership for Public Service before taking the Haas Center's Pathway to Purposeful Careers class. I knew towards the end of my college career that I probably would end up working at some sort of nonprofit. Given my psychology background, I thought maybe I would be in public health or something of that sphere. After taking that course, I decided to apply for the Community Impact Fellowship. From there, through different narrowing metrics. I ended up with the Partnership. I definitely didn't think coming in or in my senior year that I would work for something that is so close to the federal government. Government was never really my goal through college. But I was looking for a really strong nonprofit to have an earlier career experience in. And the Partnership is definitely that.
Are there projects that you're working on right now that you're excited about?
My team is in the midst of their Public Service Roadshow, which is this great program that we run. We go to higher education institutions all across the country. We have a team in Montana right now. We have another team gearing up for North Carolina next week. We give presentations to both students and career advisors on how to get involved in the federal government as an early career applicant or as a student looking for internships. Right now, a lot of my time and resources are going to be spent helping out the team with their presentations and prepping for the trips. I also get to do a couple of my own, which is really great. And because of the way that my fellowship in particular is structured, I get to come back to Stanford twice a year in person and provide some of the Partnership’s resources. During October, I'll be coming back and giving a series of presentations, holding advising hours, and creating a space for the Partnership’s resources to shine. I’ll be working with students who might be interested in working with the federal government in the future. I also help out with the internship program that we run, which is called the Future Leaders in Public Service. We recruit on behalf of agencies, helping them find students and scanning through all the applications. After we recruit these students they get placed directly with agencies. We have a fall cohort that's currently in session. So I'm helping produce their professional development sessions and smoothing out any logistical kinks that there might be. I'm working mostly on our Public Service Roadshow, but also helping support this fall intern cohort.
Why is this work in particular important to you?
The Partnership's mission is for a better government and stronger democracy. We're trying to make the government run as best as it can and support all of the people that do this work. I heard this statistic back when the fellow that used to be in my place came and presented at the Haas Center's Pathways to Purposeful Careers course. And now I'm teaching it, which is so fun. There are over 2 million people in the federal civil service and only about 7% of that group are under the age of 30. So we're very much lacking that young talent within the government, and it's not representative of the people that live here in the US. On top of that, one in three federal civil servants are eligible to retire within the next year. We need to bolster our efforts in recruiting young talent and keeping them there, and then letting them rise through the ranks. That's why I think it's important that we do this work. There are a lot of different ways that I didn't realize before joining the Partnership that the government hums around in the background: making sure that food is safe to eat, that planes are going in the right direction. And in so many other ways, they touch every individual who's living in the US. It's really important that our government continues to run. These federal civil servants—all two million of them— they're apolitical. They're not all being appointed by whoever we have in office. These are careers that you can stay in regardless of administration change. I think it's really important that we have young people who are interested in giving back to their communities and know that the federal government may be an option for them to do that.
What advice do you have for students who might be considering applying for a Community Impact Fellowship?
I've been working in my fellowship for about two months. Honestly, it's hard to say because the fellowship that I'm doing is very unique in that I still have this ongoing relationship with Stanford. I've already been talking to Cardinal Careers Program Director Ben a lot. I still do feel like very connected to the Stanford community, so I'm not sure how my advice may differ from other Cardinal Careers fellows. But I think that in terms of finding a first job straight out of college, the fellowships are a really great opportunity. Especially the Community Impact Fellowships, because you can thoroughly vet the organizations that you're applying to. I know with some of the other ones, you figure out your placement after you've already been accepted. But with these, you know what organizations you're applying to. I think that really shaped why, after I did research, it really influenced me to apply to the Partnership in particular. It's helpful to have a smaller applicant pool. And on top of that, the fellowships have the structure for very specific things that you might be interested in or that you want out of a straight-out-of-college job. It can be a little daunting sometimes to go out and not really know what you're going to do or to not feel like you have the support that you need. But with these fellowships, they're structured in a way so that you have something to rely on if things aren't going well at work or or if you're unsure of what your responsibilities are.
