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SARAH CRISER CLASS V FELLOW "It's called a fellowship, but in reality, it's life. Responsibility, thoughtfulness and drive are factored into every decision we make - all with the understanding that we are impacting lives beyond our own. There is no such thing as relative integrity."

FELLOW SPOTLIGHT: CHRIS TANNER, CLASS V

One of many advantages of being a Florida Gubernatorial Fellow is access to many of the state's top decision makers.

A Class V Fellow, however, arrived with quite a bit of experience working for political leaders. Before becoming a member of the current Fellows class, Chris Tanner worked in a quaint little place you just might have heard of: The White House.

For the majority of his time in the White House, Chris worked as the personal assistant to a man who had the ear of a two-term U.S. President: Karl Rove.

He discovered a mentor in Rove, President George W. Bush's Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff: "I didn't know much about Karl at all when I started, but I really liked him. He was a wonderful teacher and really went out of his way for me."

Ironically, Chris never planned to work in D.C. This Florida State University College of Law Ambassador never even planned to be a lawyer.

Here's what happened:

Chris had planned on a career in medicine. In spring 2003, he was pre-med at FSU, majoring in biological sciences. But shortly before he graduated, his father Steve suffered a debilitating stroke.

Steve had been managing Tanner Paint Company, one of Tampa's oldest businesses. After graduating, Chris - along with his brother Walker, who also had been attending FSU - went to Tampa to help run the business.

So Chris put his medical career plans on hold. He and Walker returned to Tampa and helped manage the store. Meanwhile, Chris did low-profile work at a local hospital to keep a toe in the medical field.

In October 2004, Chris became interested through friends in Bush's reelection campaign. He'd been in Tallahassee in 2000. He'd witnessed firsthand the battle over Bush being named the election's winner and found it intriguing.

He'd already turned his attentions from medicine to law, passing the LSAT and earning acceptance to FSU's law school. Now he decided to volunteer for the Bush campaign in its South Tampa office - a key battleground in the hotly-contested "I-4 Corridor."

When Bush was re-elected, the campaign's South Tampa field director, Nathan Hollifield, was offered a position in the White House. He suggested Chris join him, which - after receiving a deferment from law school - is exactly what Chris did.

Things moved fast in D.C. After a few months interning in the Office of Political Affairs, Chris moved to assisting the Director of Public Liaison. Only a few months later, he was working for Rove.

"I just really respected him to the Nth degree," Chris said of Rove. "There's nobody else I wanted to work for there at the White House."

Chris held the job until August 2007, when Rove told him it was time to move forward.

"I would have stayed there as long as he liked, but he said it was time for me to move on," Chris said. "He really believes in education. He said, 'You've done this. You need to get back to Florida, get back to school.' "

Less than a month after Chris left the White House, Rove tendered his resignation. Chris, meanwhile, set his sights back on law school. A fourth-generation Floridian, he'd always wanted to live and work here.

He returned to Tallahassee, dove into law school, worked as a law clerk for the state Department of Business & Professional Regulation and as a legislative intern for the state House. Never one to enjoy idle time, Chris followed that up by becoming a Florida Fellow.

It was a natural progression, Chris said, noting he's "really fallen in love" with government work: "Government gets a bad rap, but as for the actual people: with every level of government I've worked with, I've been so impressed with them."

Not only that, he's doing critical work: his fellowship position is a key role in the Florida Office of Economic Recovery.

Governor Charlie Crist created the office to delegate the distribution of $15 billion in federal stimulus funds through the year 2011. The funding involves more than 75 different programs and most state agencies. Said Chris: "I feel like I'm doing worthwhile work."

And as a Fellow, he said, he's learning worthwhile things. He talked about the trip the Fellows took the state National Guard Headquarters at Camp Blanding. There, he met many brave men and women who would soon deploy overseas.

When he was at the White House, Chris recalled, he had met troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who were meeting the President.

"It's just not the same reading about (the wars in) a newspaper as it is standing in front of somebody, knowing that a few months from now, it wont be a dummy they're shooting at," Chris said.

"They're all so young, and they're so impressive, and it was such a blessing getting to do that."