Page 27 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

CHAPTER 2

A FOUNDATION

FOR FELLOWSHIP

Our Founding Fathers all came from villages or the countryside or from
what would now be regarded as very small cities. All of them had the
opportunity, as youths, to see at first hand the process of governing. Today
young people of comparable ability grow up in a huge, complex, noisy
society, and almost none get a close-up view of government. The White
House Fellows program is one attempt to deal with that unfortunate fact.
Each year a selection of the most promising young men and women in
America are given the opportunity to see and participate in the process of
governing at the highest levels. As the years go by they have become a grow-
ing reservoir of exceptional individuals prepared to serve their country.
—Former Secretary of Health, Education,
and Welfare John W. Gardner

THE POWER OF MENTORSHIP
In 1964, there was a core group of people in and around President Johnson’s
administration who had the insight to recommend reserving a place for the
nation’s youth to work directly for officials at the highest levels of govern-
ment. It wasn’t an obvious need: Cabinet officers were busy, and bringing
in, well, neophytes to work on serious national issues certainly entailed
some risk. But whether you call it destiny, providence, coincidence, or even
divine intervention, several key people arrived at the same general idea at
virtually the same time.

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