Study and Research by Invitation

The Panetta Institute’s instructors offer a unique blend of academic expertise and real-world public policy experience. By invitation, selected students study with individuals here who have worked successfully in government and politics.

Co-founded by Leon E. Panetta, current Secretary of Defense, and Sylvia M. Panetta, the Panetta Institute is committed to inspired leadership and to creating opportunities for education and debate. The Institute works with leading experts and officials from national, state and local governments, as well as the private sector, to discuss how policymaking works in practice and to help us serve our students and our community.

In keeping with that emphasis, the Panetta Institute sponsors a uniquely designed Congressional Internship Program. Participants, chosen by the president of each CSU campus, Santa Clara University and Dominican University of California, receive an intensive orientation course here at the Institute, then go to work in the Capitol Hill office of a U.S. Representative in the California congressional delegation.  Costs for the program are covered by the Panetta Institute and participating students receive twenty units of credit upon completion of their internship.

The Leon E. Panetta Archive offers qualified scholars a rich resource for studying the federal budget process, White House operations, the workings of Congress, and other areas associated with Leon’s lengthy public service career.

In 2000, the Institute launched a program called Education for Leadership in Public Service. The purpose of this one-week Leadership Seminar is to teach student body presidents and other campus leaders the essential skills and strategies of leadership and to find ways to engage young men and women in the nation’s political life. This Leadership Seminar is offered annually in June at the Panetta Institute for student-body officers selected by the office of the president from each CSU campus, Dominican University, Saint Mary’s College and Santa Clara University.

In 2003, the Panetta Institute inaugurated a Master of Public Policy program in collaboration with California State University, Monterey Bay. Unique features of this program include teaching by a distinguished group of leading policy experts with a curriculum that focuses on the real world of policymaking, and research linked to the Leon E. Panetta Archive. The first class of Masters students graduated in the spring of 2006. The program is geared to students seeking careers in government, community and non-profit work and other forms of public service, and also to those already involved in such careers who want to upgrade their skills. Enrollment is open to anyone meeting program requirements. CSUMB acts as the degree-granting university for this master’s degree in public policy and handles admission procedures. The Panetta Institute offers a core course as well as a government concentration.

Presently, plans are underway to reconfigure the Panetta Institute’s Master of Public Policy program to a Master of Public Administration program.  The Panetta Institute offerings would remain the same, but would be tailored to meet the public administration format.

In early 2006, the Panetta Institute launched the Panetta Institute Policy Research Fellows Program with Santa Clara University School of Law. Three years later, Monterey College of Law also joined the program. Today, highly-qualified upper division law school students from both schools spend a semester at the Institute conducting research on issues of international, national, state and local concern. These promising law students acquire in-depth knowledge of the issues they research, gaining important insight into the workings of the American political system. This student research is also invaluable to the many activities and projects of the Institute.

For more information about any of these study and research opportunities, please contact us.