Woodrow Wilson News & Publications

FOR RELEASE:   June 13, 2011

CONTACT:          Caryl McFarlane, Public Policy/International Affairs
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                             Beverly Sanford, Vice President for Communications
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PICKERING FELLOWS FOR 2011 NAMED BY WOODROW WILSON FOUNDATION
U.S. State Department program supports preparation of future Foreign Service Officers

PRINCETON, NJ—The United States’ international representatives must have dedication, initiative, integrity, cultural adaptability, ability to communicate well, and a thorough intellectual background. The 40 new Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellows named this summer have demonstrated promise across this range of areas crucial to United States Foreign Service Officers. (See full lists of the 2011 Undergraduate and Graduate Fellows below.)

This fall, this diverse new class—20 Pickering Undergraduate Fellows and 20 Pickering Graduate Fellows—will begin their journey to represent America in world affairs. Administered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation for the U.S. Department of State, the Pickering Fellowships develop a source of well-prepared men and women whose academic backgrounds fulfill the skill needs of the United States Department of State and who are dedicated to representing America’s interests abroad.

Among them: a former director of village development projects in Cambodia, a missionary to the Czech Republic, a criminal justice major who helps HIV-positive individuals transition out of the corrections system, an erstwhile reporter who covered sensitive interethnic issues, a co-founder of a peace building organization in northern Uganda, and several multilinguists.

The 20 Pickering Undergraduate Fellows are the 18th class of Fellows named at the undergraduate level. Selected in their junior year, these Fellows will receive financial support towards tuition and other expenses during the senior year and during the first year of graduate study.

The 15th class of 20 Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellows will receive financial support towards a two-year, full-time master’s degree program in a related field such as public policy, international affairs, public administration, or other academic fields such as business, economics, political science, sociology or foreign languages.

Fellows in both programs participate in one domestic and one overseas internship. They commit to three years of service as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of State, contingent on their passing the Foreign Service examinations. The Foreign Service, a corps of working professionals who support the President of the United States and the Secretary of the United States Department of State in pursuit of the goals and objectives of American foreign policy, are “front-line” personnel who can be sent anywhere in the world, at any time, in service to the diplomatic needs of the United States.

The Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program is named in honor of one of the most distinguished and capable American diplomats of the latter half of the 20th century. Mr. Pickering held the rank of Career Ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service. He served as Ambassador to Nigeria, El Salvador, Israel, India, and the Russian Federation, finishing his career as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

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Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation identifies and develops leaders and institutions to address the critical challenges in education. It supports its Fellows as the next generation of leaders shaping American institutions, and also supports innovation in the institutions they will lead.

 

THE 2011 THOMAS R. PICKERING UNDERGRADUATE FOREIGN AFFAIRS FELLOWS

THE 2011 THOMAS R. PICKERING GRADUATE FOREIGN AFFAIRS FELLOWS

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