by M.J. Crawford (MSFS ’16)
In many ways, “international affairs” is more than just a career—it’s a lifestyle. One that involves traveling to new countries, learning new languages and negotiating with people from different cultures. Unfortunately, many young people in the United States have not had the opportunity to do either of these things. Many kids from my hometown of Flint, Michigan say they want to be an athlete, rapper or beautician, but none say diplomat. Through the new Georgetown MSFS Ambassador program I visited middle and high school students at Flint Northwestern Academy to encourage them to pursue an internationally focused graduate degree and career.
When I was their age, someone returned home from college to talk to my class about their major in international affairs. This initially inspired me to choose it as both my undergraduate and graduate course of study. Planting the seed in students’ minds about international career opportunities before they attend college is critical. The students’ ears perked up when I told them that the United States needed both formal and informal diplomats from places like Flint to go abroad and represent the true diversity of our country. They were surprised when I told them that I have met people in other countries who literally learned English from Tupac Shakur albums. By the end of each presentation, they were asking me how they could participate in a high school exchange program.
Oftentimes, it is hard to measure the impact that one tidbit of information shared can have on a person’s life. Still, I believe that the MSFS Ambassador model has the capacity to inspire young people to self-fund their first experience abroad, learn a critical language and hopefully one day pursue a career in foreign policy. After all, the future global competitiveness of the United States depends on it.