“In the Nation’s Service and in the Service of all Nations” exemplifies the ethos that is Princeton University and the mission of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. It is a call to public service and a mandate to provide the tools, the academic environment, to fulfill that call. There is a renewed interest in public service and a critical need within the US government for the most talented, dedicated young people to step forward to help tackle the increasingly complex challenges, domestic and international, that will face our nation. The public servant of tomorrow must possess knowledge and skills in a broader array of fields than ever before – economics, the sciences, health, urban and education policy, area studies and critical languages as well as a deep understanding of effective and creative policymaking and exceptional writing skills.

Economics – Whether through diplomacy and development, intelligence collection and analysis, or work in monetary, fiscal and regulatory agencies, economics and policy-oriented economists are the center of today’s debates and on the leading edge of policy formulation.

Health, Education and Urban Issues – Both at home and abroad, there is a need for and an increased emphasis on recruitment of next generation policy makers with the skills, experience and innovative approaches to solve the most human element of today’s problems.

Engineering, Natural and Physical Sciences – The US confronts a host of domestic and transnational issues, including environment, climate change, ocean and water resources, nuclear proliferation and chemical, biological and cyber warfare and seeks chemists, physicists, engineers and other scientists to develop and implement public policy solutions based on the best science available.

Area Studies and Foreign Languages – The Departments of State and Defense, the US Agency for International Development, Treasury and the intelligence community, among others, actively seek people with fluency in critical foreign languages and an understanding of the dynamics of foreign cultures and politics.

The Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI), established in 2006 by then-Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter, is designed to encourage, support and prepare the nation’s top students to pursue careers in the US federal government, both in international and domestic agencies. This highly competitive scholarship program aims to give exceptional students both the academic training and the practical work experience in federal service needed to succeed in public policy careers. SINSI recruits from both Princeton undergraduates and from applicants to the Woodrow Wilson School’s two-year Master in Public Affairs (MPA) degree program. (The MPA Track is in abeyance).

To date, SINSI has successfully placed undergraduate summer interns and graduate two-year fellows at the following US federal agencies, both in Washington, DC and abroad: Departments of State, Defense, Treasury, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development, the intelligence community, the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Agency for International Development, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Office of Management and Budget, the Departments of the Army and of the Navy, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institutes of Health and Congress. Two Scholars have been selected as White House interns.

The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs each fall selects up to five Scholars in the Nation’s Service drawn from Princeton juniors from all concentrations and academic backgrounds. Those selected  spend the summer after their junior year in a SINSI-funded federal government internship in Washington, DC, or abroad and will be admitted to the School’s MPA program upon graduation from Princeton. As MPA Scholars they  receive a full scholarship for tuition and living expenses while enrolled in the program, may opt for a summer of intensive language study and  spend two years between their first and second years as MPA students on a SINSI-supported fellowship with the federal government.

The Woodrow Wilson School also awards up to five SINSI scholarships through its MPA selection process. These Scholars, along with their undergraduate-track colleagues, will, as an integral part of their degree program, spend two years as fellows with the federal government in a professional-level position. They may also opt for a summer  intensive language study program in a language of their  choice and appropriate to their field of study/career aspirations. Those selected receive a full scholarship for tuition and living expenses while enrolled in the MPA program. (The MPA Track is currently in abeyance).

Scholars, both undergraduate and graduate, are selected on the basis of outstanding academic performance, personal accomplishment, leadership skills, and a demonstrated commitment to career government service.

Applications for the undergraduate scholarship are due November 1st with selection notification no later than January 1st.  Applications may be accessed online at wws.princeton.edu/scholars.

All applicants must:

• Be a US citizen at the time of application
• Be able to successfully complete a background investigation and meet security and other requirements for work in the federal government
• Maintain an overall grade point average of 3.2 or higher on a 4.0 scale throughout their participation in the program  (There is no minimum GPA to apply to the program)

“The core of public service, as Woodrow Wilson knew, is government service. The Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative is a direct response to the critical need in this country to attract greater numbers of talented students to careers in the federal government. This is the training the Woodrow Wilson School provides; this is the commitment we seek to foster through this new program.”