Former Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt spoke to a group of students about public service opportunities on Monday. He emphasized that students concentrating in all fields can help the community and world.

Around 20 students, freshmen through seniors, attended Gephardt’s short speech about the Institute and public service. The highlight of the discussion was a question and answer session.

“We want to infuse into every school and every classroom in the school a public service component,” said Gephardt. Public service is not just for the political science department or social work school. It’s for [scientists], engineers, mathematicians, everybody. There’s all kinds of efforts in public service. There are engineering students going abroad this summer to Guatemala to design and build needed buildings, like medical centers.”

Gephardt assured students that less technical majors could also play a role in public service.

“The arts are a great public service all over the world and people everywhere [are] interested in arts,” he said. “It’s also a great way to express oneself politically. Public service can be performed by anybody with any interest or skill.”

Gephardt helped create the Gephardt Institute for Public Service in 2005 to inspire students to take careers in the public service sector. He is also a member of the board of trustees for National Endowment for Democracy. He discussed international public service efforts to promote democracy in developing nations.

Gephardt emphasized that there are many areas in which students can help, such as global warming, terrorism, poverty and disease, and that the Gephardt Institute aims to help students with any focus.

“We want people to engage in whatever issue or area they are interested in. We try to shy away from saying we’re an environmental public service institute or political or law building or democracy building. We’re interested in all of it and want people to do what they’re interested in,” said Gephardt.

Gephardt is optimistic about the potential for students to cause positive change both in the local community and abroad.

The Institute was created to increase student awareness of the need for public service and the opportunities that exist to perform it.

“I remember the ‘good old days,’ and they weren’t that great,” said Gephardt. “We’ve made lots of improvements, and there’s still lots of challenges, but if we get our heads screwed on straight and get young people out in the world, we can change things.”

The Gephardt Institute is beginning to implement a summer stipend program for students to perform public service overseas. The Institute is also reaching out to older community members to perform service. But most of all, the Institute exists to spread information among students so they can serve their community.

Dick Gephardt was elected to Missouri’s 3rd District, which comprised most of St Louis, in 1977 and served 14 terms until his retirement in 2005. He served as House majority and minority leader and he launched two unsuccessful bids for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Policy is great and needed, but I’m trying to get people to actually go do things to serve the public,” said Gephardt. “Mentor a student having trouble in the public schools; anybody can do that. Or Habitat for Humanity. There are all types of organizations that do things in the public service that students can become involved in. Try public service. Try volunteering. Even if you don’t think you’d like it or don’t think it would be worth much, give it a try. You might like it and you might really learn a lot from it.”

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