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U.S. Foreign Service Officer headed to Wuhan, China

The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. The work that diplomats do has an impact on the world as they serve at one of any of the more than 270 embassies, consulates and other diplomatic missions in The Americas, Africa, Europe and Eurasia, East Asia and Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia.

The duties of a Consular Officer include to provide emergency and non-emergency services to American citizens and protect our borders through the proper adjudication of visas to foreign nationals and passports to American citizens. We adjudicate immigrant and non-immigrant visas, facilitate adoptions, help evacuate Americans, combat fraud, and fight human trafficking. Consular Officers touch people’s lives in important ways, often reassuring families in crisis. They face many situations which require quick thinking under stress and develop and use a wide range of skills, from managing resources and conducting public outreach to assisting Americans in distress.

Class XIV Peace Fellows at ICU

Jack, Ida and I
Each year, fifty total Rotary peace fellows start M.A. programs in Sweden, England, Australia, the U.S. and Japan (ten fellows are placed at each site).  Getting to know my class (Class XIV) has been really interesting since we're from a variety of different places and have many different experiences and backgrounds.  Let me introduce them:

Lily (24) from Australia is interested in, "The emerging field of business and human rights. In particular, the social impacts of foreign- owned mega development projects such as wind farms, mines, hydroelectric dams, on indigenous communities in Latin America, and the interplay between the company, the government and the community/civil society."  She's spent the last few years in Central America and speaks Spanish and French.

Hilary (26) from the U.S. shares a little bit about her interests: "My journey has been one of exploring the world and myself through many different lenses and arenas in order to achieve a state of peace and joy that is equally internal as it is external. I have taken time to explore many parts of the world (living in Brazil, India and now South Africa) and inroads of my own personal being (as an activist, organizer, writer, producer, designer, entrepreneur, analyst, explorer and meditator) to find that blissful place where the meshing of all my interests and experiences can finally find a home. Here, I have found it inside the topic of technology and how it is transforming our world both for better and for worse. It is a subject matter that, no doubt, has an impact on everything we do and something that needs proper attention paid to it. So international cyber security and diplomacy is what I am looking at."  She's spent the last year in South Africa and India and speaks Spanish, Portuguese and Hindi.

At a jazz concert with a local Rotary club
Josh (27) from the U.S. is the only one of us who has spent extensive time in Japan and can speak fluent Japanese.  Right before arriving, he worked as a crisis counselor in Nebraska and before that he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco.  He's interested in studying how international volunteering affects peacefuilgin and collaboration between communities.  Josh speaks Japanese and Moroccan Arabic.  

Madeleine (29) from Australia has a background in communications and has experience working as a journalist and also for UNICEF with the United Nations in Central Africa Republic.  She hopes to study more about education and development with a particular focus on Africa.  She spent the last few years in CAR and speaks French.

Josh, me and Lily
Ida (31) from Denmark shares a little about her interests: "I have a MA in history of religions from Copenhagen University, and am now teaching college here in Copenhagen. Have been living and working in China twice. At the consulate general in Shanghai, and doing kung fu in northern China, and teaching English there (Manchuria). Living in Syria before the war, studying Arabic and religious minorities in Syria. Working at an NGO on a cultural exchange project in Syria taking in artists and film makers from both Syria and Scandinavia to share this together - the idea was to share something universal and beautiful where everyone in spite of religious beliefs or cultural differences could meet and enjoy together. I'm still volunteering for this NGO in Denmark, we're doing a project on Greenland at the moment."

Shook (33) from Malaysia is a lawyer and worked as a protection associate for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  She's interested in studying the educational experiences and challenges of urban refugee children.  Shook speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Malay.  

Rash giving out special scarves to us as gifts (Lily has just accepted hers)
Jack (36) from England shares a bit about himself:  "I’m currently living and working in London for a NGO called The Calthorpe Project, a community garden in the heart of the city. I previously worked for Street League, a national football charity, where I developed an interest in sport and the role it can play in creating peaceful and cohesive societies. My research and voluntary work in sport for development and peace has taken me to Brazil, Japan, Lesotho and Myanmar."

Rashmi (39) from India is interested in the rights of women in her country.

Yusef (40 something) from Bangladesh used to be a brigadier in the Bangladeshi army and has been involved with several peacekeeping operations.  

Lily, Shook, Jack and Ida
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    I am currently in Mandarin language training as a new diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service. Sean and I depart for Wuhan, China in November 2019 for my first tour in consular affairs.
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