Leading Change, Serving Communities

Center for public service

The Center for Public Service (CPS) at Anderson University is an honors program for outstanding students interested in public service. The program began during the 1973-74 school year as an avenue to encourage students to focus their skills toward public service and address pressing societal needs. The major aim of the program is to bridge the gap between formal education and career for students showing a strong commitment to public service. CPS provides valuable learning opportunities through the university’s relationship with public service professionals.

Through on-campus and off-campus experiences, students prepare for careers directly meeting critical societal needs in such areas as law, education, government, research and applied sciences, medicine, social services, communication arts, and Christian service.

opportunities to serve

Cultivate your calling. Connect your learning to the good of others.

The CPS Fellows Experience

Public service isn’t limited to a particular career sector or community service projects. Every profession involves knowledge, decisions, and responsibilities that affect people, communities, and institutions. The Center for Public Service brings students from across Anderson University together to explore how their developing expertise can contribute to the common good. CPS Fellows participate in a shared, cross-disciplinary experience that connects what they are learning with the kind of professional they are becoming. Through engagement with alumni and professionals, conversations with peers from other fields, and guided reflection, Fellows consider not only what they hope to do, but what their work is for.

What Fellows Experience

Professional Practice Conversations. Twice during the first year, Fellows engage in structured conversations with alumni and professionals about vocation, professional responsibility, judgment, and the real-world impact of their work. These conversations help students understand how professionals practice responsibility.

Public Impact Lab

In the spring, Fellows work together through a realistic professional challenge. Drawing on perspectives from different disciplines, they consider how professional decisions affect people, organizations, communities, and broader systems—and what responsible action might require.

Reflection and Faculty Advising

Following each of the three core experiences, Fellows complete a guided reflection (500–750 words). At least once each semester, they meet with a faculty advisor to connect what they are learning to their discipline and developing sense of vocation.

Integration Experience

In the following academic year, Fellows bring together academic learning, CPS experiences, and emerging professional commitments to articulate how their expertise can be used responsibly for the good of others. The form varies by discipline and, when possible, builds on work already taking place in the student’s major rather than requiring a separate capstone.

Becoming a CPS Fellow

Fellows are identified through their academic departments or schools. Students from every field may be considered; there is no GPA requirement or separate CPS application. Strong candidates take their discipline seriously, are developing professional direction, demonstrate reliability, and are curious about the wider implications of their work. Fellows commit to the core cohort experiences, reflection, advising, and the Integration Experience.

CPS History

In 1971-1972 Anderson College history professor Dr. Larry Osnes conceived of the idea of a new kind of honors program. Osnes tapped into the strong service orientation of the Church of God and Anderson College to encourage students to focus their skills toward public service to address pressing societal needs.

Through a sizable grant from the Lilly Endowment, the Center for Public Service was born in 1973 and the new program anticipated that its students would develop a public service ethic, increased awareness of societal needs and firsthand knowledge of their career before graduation, and that CPS would bridge the academic world and public service sectors.

The original Honorary Board of Directors included such notables as Indiana Governor Otis Bowen, U.S. Senator Vance Hartke, and U.S. Senator Birch Bayh, as well as the balance of the entire Indiana Congressional delegation. In 1976 Dr. Doug Nelson took over as Director of CPS and ably administered the program for the next thirty-two years until the summer of 2008, guiding CPS fellows to professional mentors, conferences and professional associations, and internships.

Since the 1973-74 academic year hundreds of talented Anderson students have gone through CPS and have gone on to distinguished careers in public service.

Connect with the Center for Public Service

Next Steps

Interested in how your field of study connects to public responsibility or in learning more about a future CPS Fellows cohort? Students are encouraged to speak with their academic department or school about the Fellows selection process. Departments identify their Fellows; participation does not require a separate application or interview. Faculty, alumni, and professionals are also invited to connect with CPS about advising, Professional Practice Conversations, Public Impact Labs, and other opportunities to support students as they explore the purpose and impact of their work.