What is the path to a rewarding career in public service for young people who have a passion for serving but don’t know where to get started?
Show up.
It’s as simple as that according to Brian Payne, the new executive in residence at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. During an appearance on O’Neill Speaks, the official podcast of the O’Neill School, Payne offered advice to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students who wanted to get their foot in the door for a career in public service and community development.
“Showing up as a volunteer,” said Payne, the former president and CEO of the Central Indiana Community Foundation and the Indianapolis Foundation who built a respected career in community development and philanthropy. “Let’s say you’re interested in the arts and you think, ‘Hey, I might want to do arts management or arts administration someday.’ Start showing up to performances. When you’re at a performance, start saying hi to people. You can usually figure out if there’s some kind of management person in the audience. Introduce yourself. And, by the way, if someone in the arts sees a 16-year-old or an 18-year-old or a 22-year-old showing a lot of interest … they’ll really extend themselves.”
Payne also advises students interested in community development to hone their listening skills, specifically when it comes to the people who aren’t in places of power.
“The people in the fancy offices sitting on tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in endowments may not know the right answer in a Black neighborhood or may not know what a Latino neighborhood wants or what will work for them to enhance their quality of lives,” Payne said.
In his role as executive in residence, Payne will serve as a mentor to students at the O’Neill School, and he’s excited to be able to pass on what he has learned over the years to a younger generation. But it’s a two-way street.
“I always feel like with any kind of mentoring relationship, I learned as much as anyone else does from hanging out with younger people,” Payne said. “It keeps me active and relevant, so it’s an exchange—a mutually beneficial exchange—that I’m very excited about. There are things that you as a 22-year-old … you’re native to digital everything. I was not. I’m going to learn a ton from you, and through 64 years and a career that’s given me access to a lot of interesting projects and a lot of interesting outcomes, I have things I can share with you. I think we can both come out the better for it.”
O’Neill Speaks can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast service.
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