Page 251 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

BECOMING A WHITE HOUSE FELLOW

matter how often positions and titles change, or how fiercely the pressures from
the world encroach upon their personal lives, it is their ability to deal with ideas
and issues with honesty, integrity and courage that matters most. The Fellows and
prospective Fellows who embody these traits are truly worthy examples for all
Americans to emulate and wonderful sources of inspiration for us all.

After considering all these factors, within a short time and frequently
without much dispute, the commissioners usually are able to come together
and pare down the original group of finalists to eight to ten new Fellows
who are on virtually everyone’s list. It’s the remainder of the Fellowship
slots that are the most challenging to fill. There are usually strong opinions—
both pro and con—about the remaining candidates, and the commission-
ers spend considerable time debating and making their way toward a
decision on each one; that helps explains the wide variation in the num-
bers of Fellows each year. The Commission recommends between eleven
and nineteen new Fellows to the president each year, although the actual
number within those parameters varies with the commission members’
assessment of the quality of the pool in a specific year. The commission-
ers tend to stop deliberations once consensus (or near consensus) becomes
difficult to achieve, the rationale being that if there’s so much uncertainty
about whether the remaining candidates would make good Fellows, that’s
too much doubt for comfort.
Three days after returning home from Selection Weekend, the final-
ists receive a phone call and e-mail with the news they’ve been waiting for:
whether they are one of the eleven to nineteen new Fellows who will be
spending the upcoming year in the nation’s capital, rubbing elbows with
America’s leaders and power brokers in all sectors of the nation’s life.

WELCOMING DIVERSITY
The White House Fellowship program is part of the federal government, and
so it is an equal opportunity employer and selection cannot be influenced by
race, color, creed, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, or dis-
ability. In its early years, the program would accept only applicants between
the ages of twenty-three and thirty-five, but that limit was abolished at the
threat of an age discrimination lawsuit. When considering their final selec-
tions, Dana Mead said that the commissioners “never discussed how many
African-American candidates we had, or how many women, or military

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