Many Coast Guard diversity initiatives are service-wide outreach efforts, such as the recent participation in the World Children’s Festival, a quadrennial event hosted on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. This year’s festival, held in June, was attended by more 8,000 people. The Coast Guard had 50 active-duty, Reserve, civilian, and Auxiliary volunteers whose pavilion tent featured Coastie, the robotic safety boat, the robotic Sammy the Sea Otter, water-safety classes, fitness challenges for children, and displays of student artwork from winners of the U.S. Coast Guard Partnership in Education Program national student art contest. In addition, 18 Coast Guard families hosted some of the young artists and their families, some of which had flown thousands of miles to participate in the festival.
Other initiatives include internal programs that recognize the work of individual service members, such as the web-based Diversity Champions program, which touts the work of people such as Cmdr. Frances Messalle, a senior aviator at Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., who was recognized in August 2011 for her commitment to recruiting, mentoring, and retaining female Coast Guard aviators.
Richelle Thomas drops a ball onto a track held by Brian Boardley and Ahmed Awadelkarim June 11, 2011, during an exercise at the National Society of Black Engineers conference held at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. Outreach efforts such as hosting this conference introduce minority students to the Coast Guard and have helped increase the number of students selected for the Coast Guard’s College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Diana Honings
How does the Coast Guard measure the success of its diversity initiatives? For some of its outreach efforts, it’s a simple calculation – and the results are sometimes impressive. At the Coast Guard Academy, outreach and recruiting efforts have tripled the admissions of under-represented minority students within the last three years: 34 percent of the students in the academy’s 2015 class are under-represented minorities, an increase of 10 percent from the class of 2014. In addition, 34 percent of the 2015 class is made up of women.
The Coast Guard has also, through its close working relationship with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), dramatically increased the number of HBCU students selected for the College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative, or CSPI, an analog to the military ROTC scholarship program in which students can receive active-duty pay and junior- and senior-year scholarships in exchange for a pledge to attend Coast Guard Officer Candidate School and then serve on active duty for at least three years. In the past year, 51 percent of CSPI selectees were from HBCUs, compared to 39 percent in 2010 and 12.5 percent in 2009.
As in the case of the OPM-commissioned study, the Coast Guard is often recognized by other organizations for its efforts at promoting diversity. For the second year in a row, the service has been recognized as a top supporter of HBCUs by Career Communications, Inc., an organization that promotes the advancement of minority candidates in high-tech careers. USCG has similar outreach, recruitment, and mentoring efforts under way with Tribal Colleges and Universities and other organizations from under-represented communities, which are detailed on the website of the Coast Guard’s Office of Diversity.
To the Coast Guard, such an effort – one that permeates the entire organization, from top to bottom and from coast to coast – is clearly more than just lip service to a vague ideal of diversity.
In his May 2011 diversity message delivered to all Coast Guard personnel, Papp made clear that the service’s commitment to diversity isn’t about pleasing others; for the Coast Guard, a mission-driven organization, diversity is mission critical. “My intent,” he said, “is for us to be a profession of choice for all Americans as we continue to seek the best, brightest, and most talented workforce in America. I’m committed to achieving this goal by recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce whose composition is reflective of the physical ability, gender, ethnic, and racial diversity in American society. The challenges of the 21st century will be met by these men and women, exercising their individual talents and leadership abilities to achieve our missions. They’ll bring new approaches and fresh perspectives to old problems, fostering innovation in how we accomplish our duties.”
This article first appeared in Coast Guard Outlook: 2012 Edition.