Reflection Week 5

I found this Wednesday’s visit to the State Department very fascinating . As with anytime one enters a US government building, there was a lot of security to go through. I think that this is a good idea because our government has to regulate who goes in and out of these buildings. Once we got into the conference room where we were meeting the two officers, from the Bureau of South Asian Affairs. So each of the two officers talked about their jobs of which a big part seemed to be dealing with the press. They pretty much managed the press for the region as well as working with the press of the specific countries in that region. One of the two officers, talked about some of the student programs at the State Department. They talked about numerous internship opportunities, while here at AU, I hope that I can land some kind of internship there. One of the programs was the Pickering Fellowship, which involves working overseas as well as in Washington with the department. The area that interests me is that if East Asia and the pacific, so that where I’d try to go to. When we were able to ask questions, some people asked policy related questions which the officer answered. I’m not very well informed about the problems or US policy in southern Asia, so I was very interested to hear the officer talk about policy in that area. Also it was interesting to hear his opinion of some of the political situations in that area. While the talk was fascinating, I wish that the officers had talked more about the Foreign Service. If I go into government service, I would probably go into the State Department, and I’m most interested in the Foreign Service, because I particularly would like to be in an embassy. I’m really interested in working in this because working in an embassy would immerse me in that culture and as I rose through the ranks start to help shape US policy in that country.


I also want to comment on Luke’s running of class on Friday. I thought that he did a very good job. Being in control of the class, he was great at generating topics that stimulated everybody to have a good and thoughtful discussion. I personally hope we don’t do that every time, but I do think that once in a while it’s a good was to get someone else’s perspective on the issues.