The Foreign Service Journal, May 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2014 57 AFSA NEWS Members Give Time to Support AFSA’s Art and Academic Merit Awards Program During March and April, 25 AFSA members from the Washington, D.C., area were busy serving as judges for AFSA’s youth Merit Awards program. This year, 94 graduating Foreign Service high school seniors, in the U.S. and abroad, competed on their academic and art accom- plishments for $48,500 in prize money to be used for college education. The win- ners will be announced on May 2. As usual, AFSA will spotlight the award winners and donors who support the program in the July-August issue of The Foreign Service Journal , but we want to take this opportunity to salute the volunteer judges who are the critical “behind-the-scenes” players in this program. MOT I VATED TO G I VE BACK Wanting to give back is a prime motivator for the individuals involved in this activity, but that’s not all. Retiree Mort Dworken, who has served as an academic merit and now an art merit judge, says, “I would not come back year after year if I did not enjoy this experience so much.” A first-time judge, active- duty State Department employee Frances Chisholm adds, “It validates for me the immense potential of the next generation of our youth.” All volunteer judges attended an orientation meeting to learn the mechan- ics of scoring, spent 10-12 hours of their own time to evaluate applications over a three-week period, and then participated in a panel meet- ing to select some winners and finalists. Scholarship Committee members, who are also merit award judges, then volun- teered for a second round to evaluate the finalists from all panels and select the remain- ing award winners. Since 2012 the AFSA Merit Awards program has used an online student application submis- sion and judge evaluation program called “Fluidreview” to manage the process. THE JUDG I NG PROCESS Five academic merit pan- els and one art merit panel scored the 78 academic merit applications and 16 art merit applications AFSA received this year. Just as the academic applicants are divided into balanced panels by their grade point average and standardized test scores, so are the judges. AFSA staff members use the following criteria to assign judges to each panel: gender, active-duty versus retiree status, new or repeat volunteer, agency repre- National High School Essay Contest in 16th Year This year, AFSA’s National High School Essay Contest enters its 16th year. In honor of the 90th anniversary of the Foreign Service, students were challenged to write about an important topic from diplomatic history. The available topics were the Cuban missile crisis, the 1978 Camp David Accords, the end of the Cold War, the Northern Ireland Peace Process/Good Friday Agreement, the post-WorldWar II period/Marshall Plan, and diplomacy through development. The most popular topic was the Cuban missile crisis. We received more than 400 essays from 47 states and six countries, with just over 100 qualifying to move onto the second round of judging, in early April; the final round of judging began April 15. The winning essay earns the student an all- expense paid trip with family to Washington, D.C., to meet the Secretary of State, a $2,500 prize, and an educational voyage courtesy of Semester at Sea when the student enrolls in an accredited university. Learn more at www.afsa.org/essaycontest or by contacting AFSA’s Coordinator for Special Awards and Outreach Perri Green at green@afsa.org or (202) 719-9700. n NEWS BRIEF Continued on page 63 Volunteers Karen Zens and Mort Dworken, both members of the AFSA Scholarship Committee, discuss an entry at the art merit panel meeting. KERRINMURPHY