The Foreign Service Journal, May 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2013 29 active-duty Foreign Service officers and Civil Service employ- ees, associate members and retired employees of the Depart- ment of State and the U.S. Agency for International Develop- ment. It is also the oldest of the 12 State Department employee affinity groups recognized by the Office of Civil Rights. Speakers at our luncheon meetings (now held on a quarterly basis) have included Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Rodham Clin- ton, as well as many Foreign Service directors general, under secretaries for management and ambassadors. We also invite leaders of nongovernmental organizations and other figures from the foreign policy world to address our events. Lending a Helping Hand Mentoring continues to be one of TLG’s top priorities, with special emphasis on entry-level employees. Foreign Service pioneers like Ambassadors Edward Perkins, Ruth A. Davis, Harry Thomas and Harriett Elam-Thomas are among the group’s foremost mentors. Former Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides served as TLG’s most recent leadership liaison and strongly championed the group’s goals. In a targeted effort to attract the next generation of career FSOs, we partnered with the American Foreign Service Asso- ciation in 1995 to establish a joint internship program. The AFSA/TLG internship program introduces minority college students to international affairs through a 10-week internship program at State. Two of them, Tejal Shah and Stacy Session, have entered the Foreign Service, and I am an alumnus of the program, as well. Also in 1995, we established the Terence Todman Book Scholarship to encourage outstanding students at historically black schools to study and pursue careers in international affairs. Since its inception, we have given well over $20,000 to students at Howard, Morehouse, Spelman, Southern Uni- versity, Rust College, Bethune Cookman University and the University of the U.S. Virgin Islands. While TLG’s main mission is to increase participation by African-Americans in the formulation, articulation and imple- President Stacy D. Williams presents TLG medallion to then-Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. TLG member Clayton Bond looks on. Micheal Gross