FBI Taps UC Berkeley Students for Minority Recruitment Campaign

BERKELEY, Calif.
The FBI has enlisted the help of students at the University of California, Berkeley to create a marketing campaign designed to recruit more women, young people and minorities, administrators said.

The agency is trying to shed its conservative image by soliciting the advice of students from one of the country’s most diverse campuses, says Michelle Woodland, a program facilitator with EdVenture Partners, the Internet-based consulting firm working with the FBI and students on the project.

Berkeley’s campus is mostly female, and more than 40 percent are Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

“You see FBI agents portrayed on TV and in the movies and it definitely is that middle-age White male [in the roles]. That is definitely not what the FBI is about anymore,” Woodland says.

As part of a class project, three dozen students from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business are creating the campaign. Students from nine schools around the country are participating in the recruitment effort.
It’s not the first time a government agency has enlisted the help of UC Berkeley students to help with recruitment. The CIA initiated a similar program last fall, but administrators did not want publicity because they feared protests, Woodland says.

— Associated Press

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