NEW PROGRAM HOPES TO SPUR
STUDENTS' INTEREST IN PUBLIC SERVICE

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., April 23 -- Undergraduate and graduate
students throughout Virginia will be paid to investigate careers in
local government through a new leadership program announced last
night. 
	To be launched in the summer of 1998, Leadership 2020 will
offer students at Virginia's colleges and universities paid
internships to investigate public service careers, Nancy Gansneder,
director of the University of Virginia's University Internship Program
(UIP) announced last night at a reception marking UIP's 20th
anniversary. 
	A joint project of the Virginia Institute of Government and
UIP in U.Va.'s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, Leadership
2020 will offer students credit-granting internships that will allow
them to investigate the function, structure, purpose, scope and future
of local governments.  "Large corporations and businesses dedicate
resources to recruiting and hiring students, sending a message to
students that they are valued and important," noted Gansneder,
Leadership 2020 project director.
 	"Local governments, however, have few means of attracting
students to its work. They are unable to afford the corporate sector's
high visibility recruiting methods. As a result, students do not know
or believe that careers in public service are available and that their
skills are valued," said Gansneder, an assistant professor of
sociology who is also associate director of leadership development at
the Cooper Center.
	Leadership 2020 staff will spend the next year working with
localities to develop, enhance and market internship opportunities.
They will also work with Virginia colleges and universities to
identify talented students who are interested in working in local
government and design the academic component of the internships.  The
staff plans to post internship possibilities and receive applications
from prospective interns over the Internet.
	The new program will fill two important needs, Gansneder
believes.  It will give colleges and universities opportunities to
develop new partnerships with localities that ensure the internships
will meet both entities' needs.  It will also provide students with a
new source of information about jobs.
	"Many students, particularly at U.Va. where they have become
committed to community service through their UIP and Madison House
experiences, are interested in public service careers, but there has
been no way to connect with localities that are hiring," said
Gansneder.
	She envisions the internships as being either full- or
part-time positions, with a minimum 20-hour a week commitment.
Internships will run over 14 weeks during the academic year or 10
weeks in the summer.  
	She hopes the new program will be able to place approximately
30 interns in the summer of 1998.  She hopes to expand the program in
1999 to place approximately 100 interns. 
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April 22, 1997
	FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact Nancy Gansneder at (804)
982-5552.  Television reporters should call our TV News Office at
(804) 924-7550.