November 5th, 2020
I attended the virtual U.S. Department of State – Student and Recent Graduate Career Paths information session. The guest speaker was Lou Fintor, an active Foreign Service officer who served as a U.S. Embassy Spokesperson twice in Afghanistan, as well as in Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Kosovo, and in the U.S. Mission to NATO on overseas postings.
Lou Fintor discussed career paths such as Foreign Service, Civil Service, and overall advised us as students and future employees. He explained how the embassy is organized and how the work they do is very important as people will judge the United States by their interactions with us. He then went onto explain the different student programs they offer. These included the US Department of State student internships, pathways program, and virtual student foreign service. One day I hope to work at the Department of State and so I would love to have an internship there during my undergraduate career to have more experience.
He also went on to discuss foreign service specialists. These are specialists in security, administration, information technology, or medicine and health. He explained the foreign service officer test and how it covers how well you know the United States. I had never heard of this test before so that part of the presentation was especially interesting. Furthermore, he explains the Consular Fellows Program, and how these workers use their foreign language skills to serve as US diplomats to consular positions overseas for up to five years.
This program is related to IA as we are all interested in international issues, and therefore some of us might look to work abroad or for the State Department one day.