Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are underrepresented in the federal government's Senior Executive Service (SES). To address this issue, the Asian American Government Executives Network (AAGEN) has been sponsoring the SES Development Program with participation by the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

In March 2012, AAGEN launched the inaugural class of the SES Development Program consisting of 20 candidates. This program has been noted as a model of success by OPM and several agencies for its development of new SES candidates for successful SES appointments in the past 12 years.

With the 2024-2025 Cohort, AAGEN has evolved the curriculum to meet the challenges facing current and future senior executive leaders in the Federal Government. Relaunched as the AAGEN SES Leadership Development Program, the updated curriculum will introduce an enhanced experiential learning component which aids participants in preparing their applications for SES positions, adopts the most current leadership training available, and draws from a robust network of government executives and alumni to provide mentorship and advice. Highlights of the curriculum include:

•  SES application preparation
•  Leadership training
•  Mock interview
•  Mentorship
•  Public speaking tutorials
•  Networking opportunities

The program curriculum will consist of 2‐3 days per quarter of class work, speakers, and networking sessions. Program participants are expected to complete all assignments in preparation for upcoming training sessions. In addition, one mentor/mentee session per quarter will be scheduled, along with any activities assigned by the SES mentor and/or trainers to be completed by the candidate on their own time.

Applications for the upcoming 2024‐2025 Class will be accepted from August 9th, 2024 through September 10th 2024. Click here for application instructions.

All eligible individuals are encouraged to apply. The program is open to government GS-14 (with 2 years of management/supervisory, or equivalent leadership, experience) & GS-15 (with 1 year of supervisory experience) or non-government executive professionals with at least 2 years of supervisory experience. Current federal government employees and professionals from outside the federal government may apply.

An Executive Review Panel will review all qualified applications and select highly motivated applicants for the class commencing in December 2024. The first block of instruction is scheduled for December 9 – 11, 2024. The program will continue through September 2025. This is a highly selective process, and AAGEN will select up to 20 candidates for the class.

The candidates selected to become program participants must be a regular member of AAGEN at program commencement and for the duration of the program period. (Information about applying for membership may be found here) All program participants are expected to commit time during the normal work day to the program. Successful selectees must obtain permission from their organization to participate in the program and provide a written agreement from their organization to cover any time spent on the program, travel‐related costs, and support the selectee’s participation in a 90-120 day developmental rotation or detail which will provide broadening experience operating at a senior executive level.

Through the generous sponsorship of our partners at Spectrum Knowledge and Elevate, the 2024 - 2025 program will be offered at no additional monetary cost to the selected candidates and their respective organizations, beyond what has already been discussed above.

The training will be conducted in-person in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The one‐on‐one mentoring sessions with an SES mentor will be scheduled by the program participant and their assigned mentor.

Please distribute this announcement within your organization and encourage eligible candidates to apply. Your support is essential to the success of the program.