Page 257 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

CHAPTER 25

FELLOWS AT WORK

The White House Fellowship is clearly the best fellowship in America,
and it’s probably the best fellowship in the world. I don’t think that’s
an exaggeration at all. I mean, think about what we did. We got to
work at the highest levels of government for a year. We got to choose
where we traveled and who we met with. We had lunch with the most
important people in the country three times a week, and we could ask
them anything we wanted. There’s nothing like it in the world—
nothing.
—Assistant Secretary of State
Daniel Sullivan (WHF 02–03)

JOB PLACEMENT
The reality of selection barely sets in before the newly minted Fellows are
back on the hot seat again, this time for Placement Week in July. The Fel-
lows spend Placement Week shuttling around Washington, D.C., for a
series of interviews. They are jockeying for job assignments while the White
House staff and cabinet officers, or “principals,” are competing for their
choice of Fellows.
In the days leading up to Placement Week, the Fellowship Office gives
every principal who wants a White House Fellow a book containing each
Fellow’s full application packet, photograph, and biography. The principals
are asked to indicate which Fellow or Fellows they’d most like to work with
in the coming year. At the same time, the Fellows are asked for their work
site preferences. On the basis of everyone’s wishes, the Fellowship Office

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