Dear Law Student,
I am an employee at the Department of State, who
happens to be blind, and I represent the
leadership of a recently-formed employee affinity
group, the Disability Action Group (DAG). Among
others, my colleague, Somer Bessire-Briers, works
with me on DAG matters and represents the Special
Emphasis Program for Individuals with
Disabilities in the Office of Civil Rights
(S/OCR). I work for the Chief Information
Officer (CIO) in the Information Resource Management (IRM) Bureau.
We are making plans for what we hope will be an
informative and interesting Disability Employment
Awareness Month (DEAM) program at the Department
of State on Wednesday, October 21, 2009. We are
soliciting up to four law students with targeted
disabilities who would be very interested and who
can commit by 8/6/2009 to participating in an
all-day event at the Department. Four to eight
undergraduate or graduate students with targeted
disabilities are expected to participate as
well. As you can well imagine, we will need a
committed group of roughly twelve student
participants in total and then plenty of time to
match them with twelve Department professionals
and to plan program events and to make all the
necessary preparations. Without a sufficient
number of committed participants and
sufficient planning/preparation time, we will
have to cancel this event and perhaps try in
the future. If for some other reason(s) we
have to cancel this event, we will inform you soon after we know.
One purpose of this day’s event is to provide an
opportunity for student participants to network
with Department professionals with and without
disabilities and to learn about the Department’s
history, and mission, about careers in the
Civil Service or Foreign Service, and about
intern and other hiring/recruitment programs at
the Department. However, this event is not
intended as a job fair and that we are not
committing to extending any job offers to
participants specifically prior to, during, nor immediately after this event.
All participants must be U.S. citizens, full-time
undergraduate or graduate/law students with at
least a 3.0 G.P.A. on a 4.0 scale, and have a targeted disability.
All participants will need to arrange and pay for
their own transportation to and from the
Department. However, lunch is expected to be provided to student participants.
While the Department's mission is one of foreign
affairs, the Department's workforce consists of
thousands of employees in either the Civil
Service (CS) or in the Foreign Service (FS), and
these employees’ educations and professions vary
widely. Accordingly, student participants who
are interested in or pursuing any of a variety
of studies or professions are welcome, including
but not limited to the following: Business
Management, Economics, Finance, Human Resource
Management, Information Technology/Computer
Science, International Affairs/Relations, Law,
Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Public
Affairs, Public Diplomacy, Social Work. More
information should be available off of http://careers.state.gov.
Tentative Agenda
8:15-3:45
8:15-8:45 – Arrive at the Department of State
Diplomatic Entrance at 2201 C Street NW and Meet
Department employees who will greet student
participants and escort them to the first meeting place.
9-10:15 – Intros, Brief Presentation on
Department's History and
Mission, & Internships/Possible Careers Briefing (covering CS and FS).
10:30-noon – Shadow Department employee partner
Whilst she/he performs job-related task(s).
12:15-1 – Lunch (Perhaps video teleconference
(VTC) given by senior FS employee with disability from Post.)
1:15-3:00 – Briefings from at least members of
Human Resources (HR), Information Resource
Management (IRM), the Secretary's Office of Civil
Rights (S/OCR), and the Disability Action Group
(DAG) regarding Department Programs/Services for employees with disabilities.
3:15-3:45 – Wrap-up, feedback/program evaluation, goodbyes, escorts
Notes
1. As needed, we will plan on/schedule intermittent five-minute or so breaks.
2. Officials at the highest level of the
Department will be invited to but not
guaranteed to make a guest appearance.
3. Student participants will need to be escorted
throughout the day, as all visitors
without Department security clearance are required to be.
4. Any special needs (e.g., medical, dietary, or
service-animal related) and requests
for reasonable accommodation will need to be
communicated clearly and well in advanced.
We will do our best to provide reading material
in an accessible electronic format; we may not
have the time/resources to provide Braille versions.
please provide a CV or resume and a brief -- no
more than one-page -- explanation of why you are
interested in participating in this event. All
materials need to be e-mailed in an
accessible electronic format (e.g., accessible
HTML, MS Word, RTF, TXT). Please do not
e-mail social security numbers, but include full name and contact information.
Please e-mail your materials to
schaferpp at state.gov] by August 6, 2009. Somer
and I (at least) will make our decisions and
e-mail or call each selected participant by late
August. If at all possible, we are hoping to
select two impressive men and two impressive women law students.
Please e-mail or call me or Somer with any questions.
Thanks, and Live well! ---Paul & Somer
*******************
Paul P. Schafer, DAG Council Administrator (Chair)
Information Resource Management (IRM) Bureau
U.S. Department of State, SA3
2121 Virginia Avenue N.W., RM 4148
Washington, D. C. 20037
Voice: 202.663.0223 (ext. 30223)
E-mail: schaferpp at state.gov
Somer Bessire-Briers
Office of Civil Rights
Special Emphasis Program
Individuals with Disabilities
202-647-2321 (ph)