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Merit award winners and their families who live in the Wash-
ington, D.C., area, along with local AFSA scholarship donors,
judges, committee members, AFSA leadership and retirees at-
tending Foreign Affairs Day attended a reception and ceremony
in May to celebrate and honor the winners’ achievements.
We especially thank Ambassador Lange Schermerhorn for re-
turning as the chair of the AFSA Scholarship Committee in 2014.
National High School Essay Contest
The National High School Essay Contest, now in its 17th year, is
one of AFSA’s most successful outreach efforts. The contest invites
high school students whose parents are
not
in the Foreign Service
to think critically about the crucial role diplomacy plays in the
world. In 2014, the Essay Contest was more popular than ever be-
fore. For the first time in its history, AFSA received entries from
students in 47 states and six foreign countries—450 submissions
in all.
To celebrate the Service’s long history in its 90th anniversary
year, we asked students to choose a significant diplomatic en-
gagement from the past to write about. Students were required to
identify the issue, outline the diplomatic steps taken to address it,
highlight the role played by the Foreign Service and discuss why
diplomacy mattered then and still does today.
Attendees enjoy AFSA’s annual scholarship ceremony, part of the annual Foreign Affairs Day Ceremony in May 2014.
Local AFSA Merit Awards winners
were honored at AFSA
on May 2, 2014.
Front row:
(left to right) Olivia Sullivan,
Frank Keat, Maya Yu.
Back row:
Timothy Kostelancik,
Grace Bachman, Phoenix Morrison.