June 23, 2010

Vincent Carr was selected to attend the 11th annual Student Leadership Seminar at the Panetta Institute for Public Policy housed at CSU Monterey Bay.

During the spring semester, Carr was elected president of CSUMB's Associated Students – the student government – and took office at the end of the school year.

The seminar was held the week of June 20. The students lived in the university residence halls.

Each year, the Panetta Institute brings together student body presidents and other elected student leaders from the 23 California State University campuses, Santa Clara University, Dominican University of California and Saint Mary's College of California to help them hone their leadership skills and develop strategies for addressing campus, community and national problems.

The seven-day seminar, called Education for Leadership in Public Service, is intended to teach the students about leadership principles and practices; to send them back to their campuses as more effective leaders; and to encourage them to pursue lives of public service.

Among the panelists are former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta, former NFL player and coach Herm Edwards and former California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson.

"The young people who come to this program have already distinguished themselves as leaders among their peers at their universities," said Sylvia M. Panetta, director of the Panetta Institute. "We want to encourage them to continue to serve their communities and their nation as leaders after graduation and throughout their lives.

"To do so, we expose them to leaders from a variety of areas and with a wide breadth of experience. The students learn from these experts and from one another, developing the skills of effective leadership including ethics, compromise and coalition building," Mrs. Panetta said.

The course was developed in 1999 by a blue-ribbon panel of public officials and academic leaders in response to the findings of the Institute's national survey of college students, which showed alarmingly low levels of student interest in government and public service. Program costs are fully paid by the university or student body association with which each student is affiliated and by the Panetta Institute. Students earn academic credit for their participation.