Foreign Service Officer
“Coming from the private sector background where I was dealing with all of those issues and trying to understand them, it was really intriguing to me to move from understanding them to helping to impact them and improve them and working for U.S. interests.”
“I think a lot of times, people sit on the sidelines and are frustrated with the way the world is going or the directions we’re going as a country or the different policies we have, and this career gives you the ability to make a real difference, and you can touch people’s lives.”
“You really are the representative of much more than yourself – and how you carry yourself and how you conduct your business often means more than just for that immediate situation. It means everything from how our relationship with a country will be, to maybe even the future of our foreign policy.”
“If you’re intrigued by foreign cultures, if you find that when you travel you really get a kick out of it, and you’re kind of the type who likes to go in the back alleys and see what people are really doing beyond the tourist resorts, look at the Foreign Service because that’s kind of what we do.”
“I went into the middle of what seemed to be thousands of people with cameras clicking, tape recorders whirring, people with pen and pencils, just flying, and a million questions at the same time. And I just thought, okay, this is a situation where I can really make or break, and I thought this is where being a Foreign Service officer really makes such a difference, and that you can be cast into situations where you never would have expected to be in the middle of.”
“When I go abroad meeting people from other cultures as they form their ideas of what an American is like, I’m representing my mother, my father, my high school friends, the people I went to college with…I’m there making sure that they’re well-represented in whatever country I’m in.”