Pathway to Public Service Available in Rochester Hills

Innovative Grant from Wells Fargo Will Fund $30,000 in Fellowships

Recognizing the need to elevate the awareness of careers in municipal government and inspire the next generation of city employees, the City of Rochester Hills has created the ‘Pathway to Public Service’ program. The comprehensive initiative includes four components: an internship program and a fellowship program, both targeting college students, and outreach programs targeting high school students and college career planning and placement professionals. The effort is being funded by a generous grant from Wells Fargo.

The grant will allow the City to onboard four college student interns and award six $5,000 fellowships to college juniors or seniors or master’s degree students during the first half of 2019. In addition to receiving funds to offset educational costs like tuition, books and fees, fellowship recipients will participate in an interactive group project led by the Mayor’s Office as a condition of the receipt of the award. This project will require participants to learn about all aspects of municipal government – the what, why and the how behind the City’s work – culminating in a group project and presentation. Applications for the fellowship can be found online and are due on March 8, 2019.

U.S. Conference of Mayors Logo

U.S. Conference of Mayors

Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan K. Barnett stated, “We’re thrilled about the creation of the “Pathway to Public Service” program and the funding we received from the Wells Fargo CommunityWINS Grant Program to implement it. Participants will learn about the work we do at the City, why we do it and how they can make a meaningful difference in the life of a community.” The CommunityWINS program was brought to the City through its relationship with the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM).

“Wells Fargo is pleased to team with the USCM to make these grants available for efforts such as the Pathway to Public Service program and enable them to support their neighborhoods,” said Martin Sundquist, executive director of the Wells Fargo Housing Foundation. “Wells Fargo cares about the communities we serve, and the CommunityWINS grant program is among several economic empowerment efforts we support to strengthen communities.”

Rochester Hills’ “Pathway to Public Service” initiative has already reached high school students through the City’s participation in Rochester Community Schools’ comprehensive Authentic Career Experience program last October and active involvement in the first ever MI Career Quest SE event in November. The latter allowed the City to engage over 7,000 high school students from 100 schools across the region in a single day.

In addition, Rochester Hills’ leadership has connected with college career planning and placement professionals that are part of the Michigan Career Educator & Employer Alliance (MCEEA). The goal is to keep careers in municipal government on their radar when they’re advising college students about career opportunities. Mayor Barnett welcomed this group to our community in December.

“We love telling the story of our City and talking about careers that students may have never considered. We’re being proactive and intentional about reaching out to the next generation and to those who influence them,” stated Barnett.

“We want to be proactive about creating a constant pipeline of the best and brightest candidates to fill job openings in the City for years to come,” he said. “Even better, we anticipate our ‘Pathway to Public Service’ program will become a model for other communities to replicate throughout the country.”

About Wells Fargo: Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through 8,200 locations, 13,000 ATMs, the internet, and mobile banking, and has offices in 42 countries and territories to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 25 on Fortune’s 2017 rankings of America’s largest corporations. News, insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories.

About USCM: The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are more than 1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor.

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