wall. a lot of metals, a lot of coins that are distributed among everyone there. , the most important thing about this wall is this brick, which is entitled "geronimo." it is a brick that was brought back to me by those who conducted the operation that went after osama bin laden. announcer: we spoke with the former secretary of defense leon panetta about the leon panetta attitute for public policy the california state university in monterey bay. sec. panetta: it was an institute that my wife and i found it. it has been almost 18 years since we establish the institute. it happened when we came back

from service in washington, and i was the chief of staff to president clinton. i came back to my home area and was teaching some classes. i got concerned that i did not see a lot of inspiration in young people to get involved in public service, and that concerned me. my wife and i decided that we would establish the panetta institute with the mission of trying to inspire young people to lives of public service. young people want to get involved in public service is because it is critical to our democracy. our democracy just does not work unless people are willing to be a part of it, give something of governingystem in this country. i was inspired to get involved in public life because my

parents were immigrants and thought it was important to give some ringback to the country. i served in the army for two years, and that taught me a lot about duty to president. that was a young president said, ask not what you can do -- ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. it was important. there were a lot of role models in washing them that inspired -- a lot of role models in washington that it inspired me as well. you are seeing young people not really givingin back to the country. that is why my wife and i thought it was so important to get young people to understand that they have a responsibility as citizens of this country to that isk to the nation

unique in its democracy, because are in the democracy. we do a number of programs. we had to think a lot about, what are the kinds of programs that could help inspire young people to lives of public service? we developed the congressional internship program, selecting students from throughout the csu system. that.t. mary's is part of they select students that come here. weeks of training to train them on the issues in washington, how washington operates, how the house of representative operates. we have a number of speakers over that two weeks. washington too intern in the california delegation, both democrats and

republicans. it exposes them to washington, how it operates or fails to operate. .t gives them good exposure we think if you are a student body officer there must be something that it inspired you to get involved. we do a leadership program for all of the student body officers system as the csu well as other colleges and universities. we do a lecture system that involves liberals and conservatives discussing issues in a civil way so that students all of the hard line partisan differences we see in washington today, it does not have to be that way. i have seen washington at its best and at its worst. i want young people to understand that washington can

work if you are willing to listen and work with others, and try to find consensus. those are some of the things we try to get young people to see. issues thatk at the students are concerned about, a lot of those are the same issues a lot of us are concerned about. with another part annual survey of college students' attitudes toward a number of issues, politics, obviously now we are in the middle of a presidential race -- what do they think about the different candidates? what are they concerned about , they arerestingly concerned about their future, whether they will have a better life in the future. they are concerned about education issues. they are worried about student debt, whether or not they will

be able to complete their education. it wastingly enough, something we had not seen before, in a recent survey, the students said -- we asked them about national service. have not beenents that excited about the idea of serving the country in some capacity to for one or two years. said they would support the national service system in exchange for benefits to help pay for their education. i thought that was interesting that students for the first time seemed to be very interested in some form of national service system that would allow them to give back to the country in exchange for benefits for higher education. i have been deeply involved with the panetta institute.

my wife runs the institute. she is really the ceo of the institute. it.ran when we first came back she did a lot of work in managing the institute and i did a lot of the teaching, and i also moderated the lecture series. when i was called back to washington by the president to erector and cia secretary of defense, my wife continue to run the institute and other programs. those programs really flowered during the time that she ran the institute. today, coming back here, we have gone back to our old mode. she does a lot of the managing work running the institute. it is a nonprofit. we have a board of directors

that helps to guide the programs. she works with the board, the teachers, the classroom operations. what i do is i usually support that in whatever way i can. i will teach classes, particularly for the entrance going back to congress. i will teach in the leadership program and moderate the lecture series. it has been about 50 years i have been involved in public life in one capacity or another. i used to ask my father, my immigrant father, why he came to longcountry -- coming that distance in the early 1930's with my mother. why would you travel? he said we wanted our children to have a better life. we always felt it was the american dream. i have had the honor of living

that dream as the son of italian immigrants. for having the first chance in to family's history of going college, then service in the army, then going back as a legislative assistant to a u.s. senator, and all of the other career positions i have held. institute isat the kind of a history of some of those periods in my life. the secretary of defense presentation. it shows a lot of my visits to the troops around the world. of,of the things i am proud this picture of the president was a picture of those that were involved in eliminating don't ask don't tell. of the a picture

president looking at me when i andthe state of the union saying "good job." that picks itc up. they said, what did the president mean? indicate it was because we had completed a mission of rescuing a hostage in the middle east, and they had done a great job. this is my cia wall. a lot of medals, a lot of coins are distributed among everyone there. the most important thing about break,ll is this entitled "geronimo." it is a brick that was brought back to me by those who conducted the operation that went after osama bin laden. it is pretty special.

it is probably the only thing left of that compound, which has been torn down. wall dedicated to the congress. a lot of work i did in the congress. work.of it reflects ocean that says monterey bay national marine sanctuary. it was a bill that when i was in congress i was able to get establish the monterey bay national marine sanctuary, the largest sanctuary in all of the system. it protects the coastline from san simeon to san francisco. i was very proud in being able to protect our great coastline. in every position i have had, i have been able to get something done that i thought health

theove -- helped improve lives of people. that is what i want. what i want people to know from their experience at the panetta institute is that public service is not just another job. it is the -- the importance of public service is to help people in this country to have a better life, and more importantly how important it is to our democracy. a government of and for the people has to function because people care about the country and helping others. that is the fundamental mission of what the panetta institute is all about. announcer: american history tv is featuring monterey, california. our tour staff traveled there to learn about its history. learn about monterey, and other

stops, on www.c-span.org /citiestour. >> coming up next, texas tech university professor sarah keyes talks about her current book project on the oregon trail. she provides background on the threats that people faced on the trail and explains how they dealt with death on the journey. we interviewed the professor at the western history association annual conference in portland, oregon, in october. this is about 20 minutes. >> so, it is always a part of my -- >> what led to your work on the oregon trail? >> i am a child of the 1980's, .nd i grew up playing the game how you are trying to survive this trek across the continent.