About 25 students had the opportunity to listen to several distinguished speakers in Connell Hall room 131, about career pathways and opportunities in the public service field. 

The first speaker was Dr. Christan Janousek who works as a professor at Creighton Law School. Janousek also has several different degrees including a master’s degree and a Ph.D., both in public administration, and a bachelor’s degree in political science, as well as a JD from Creighton School of Law. 

“I was very interested in pursuing public administration,” Janousek said.  

He went on to tell the story of his many years as a public administrator. He said that he has held many important administrative positions in several different schools. Then he talked about the importance of state and local governments. 

“About 20 million people work in local and state government in the United States, according to the U.S. census,” Janousek said. 

Next to speak was Amy Miller, who is both the Wayne county attorney and the Wayne city attorney. Like Dr. Jenousek, Miller also went to WSC. She said that she has several different responsibilities, being in the position she’s in. One notable responsibility that she explained was that as well as being both the county and city attorney, she is also the coroner, which means if someone needs to be pronounced dead, she would have the responsibility of doing that.  

The third speaker of the day was Wes Blecke, who is the city administrator of Wayne. Blecke graduated from Wayne in 2000 with a degree in political science. After he graduated from WSC, he decided to further his education at UNO.  

“I had no interest in public administration until one of my last classes at UNO,” Blecke said.  

He said that originally his plan after college was to work in a cubical crunching number for some politician. But as soon as he took a class in public administration, Blecke said that going in that direction made a lot more sense. 

“People who want to make an impact go into these careers,” Janousek said.  

Public service is about being able to step up and lead the people in your community, which was something that most of the speakers said in some way in each of their speeches.