TODAY more than ever before, we need young men and women with long-range visions of what this Nation and this world must and can be. We need young people who are willing to work hard to translate these visions into reality.
During your summer stay in Washington, you will be associated with people who are dedicated to making great dreams come true. By their personal skill and high sense of responsibility and patriotism, they are giving intense meaning to public service in the sixties.
You will honor this cause by approaching your work with a keen spirit of hope and achievement. I hope that you will bring to your task, whatever it may be, an inquiring mind and a committed heart. Try to learn everything you can from your work--and, in return, try to give your work everything you Can.
This summer you are participating in your Government in a personal and direct way. I hope that it will be an exciting and satisfying experience, and I hope, too, that you will return to your homes or your campuses this fall with new resolve to help our Nation meet the great challenges of this decade.
Note: The statement is part of a White House release announcing that the third annual White House seminar for college students would begin the following day. Scheduled speakers included President Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and Director of the Peace Corps Sargent Shriver. The group, numbering nearly 5,000 students, would spend the summer working in various Government agencies.
The seminars, under the direction of Mrs. Dorothy Davies of the White House staff, were originated by President Kennedy in 1961 "to inspire the Nation's youth to meet the challenge of good government."
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on the White House Seminars for College Students. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/239215