Page 242 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

CHAPTER 24

BECOMING A FELLOW

In founding the White House Fellows program, [President Johnson]
hoped to provide our nation’s finest young men and women with an
opportunity to know and understand the responsibilities and the chal-
lenges of public service.
—Lady Bird Johnson

PLOTTING THE COURSE TO FELLOWSHIP
When designing the selection process for the White House Fellows pro-
gram, Tom Carr and the Commission made sure the road to the White
House was not a cakewalk. A run-of-the-mill application and interview
process wouldn’t do, and so they worked up a series of hazards designed to
intimidate and eliminate applicants. Carr, who had gained a profound
understanding of leadership models from his studies at The Citadel, his
combat tours in Korea, and his participation in high-level federal man-
agement internships, sought advice on how to select the best of the best
from experts at the Rhodes Scholarships, the College Entrance Examina-
tion Board, the U.S. Naval Academy, the Peace Corps, and Exxon, to name
a few. At University of North Carolina President Bill Friday’s urging, Carr
became a member of the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation’s selection
committee, where he discovered an effective technique for conducting the
final selection of Fellows. Through his association with the Markle Foun-
dation, Carr said, “I learned that a weekend selection meeting enhanced by
the presence of the committee members’ wives can be a powerful tool, so
we incorporated that idea into our own White House Fellows plan.” That

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