The Foreign Service Journal, June 2004

42 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 4 I n the pastoral setting of the Foreign Service Institute’s grounds in Arlington, Va., you’ll find children outside during the summer months, standing in a circle and screaming at the top of their lungs. This is no cause for alarm — they are demonstrating their knowledge of what to do if in a dangerous situation, something they’ve learned by participating in the Youth Security Overseas Seminar, which is sponsored by the Transition Center’s Training Division. It’s all part of the Transition Center’s focus on life issues in the foreign affairs community. An orga- nizational unit within the Foreign Service Institute, the Transition Center is unique in that it helps pre- pare employees and their family members for effectiveness in the for- eign affairs community by facilitating transitions throughout — and after — their careers. More than 22,000 people visit the TC annually. Officially opened in 2000, the center brings together under one roof three divisions that actually have been around for many years: the Overseas Briefing Center, the Foreign Affairs Training Division, and the Career Transition Center. The TC staff helps State Department specialists, junior officers, ambassadors, its own Civil Service people, as well as peo- ple from USAID, DEA, DOD, and all of these employees’ family members. As the information and research arm of the TC, the Overseas Briefing Center offers materials for perusal on- site and also electronically. The OBC offers a depth and breadth of information for foreign affairs community mem- bers not available elsewhere in a centralized location. In an informal, family-friendly setting, employees and authorized visitors can browse through the information in country briefing boxes. Multimedia presentations, a collection of cultural guides, and a library of cross-cultural reference books are also available. A cornerstone of OBC publica- tions is the Foreign Service Assignment Notebook: What Do I Do Now? Information gathering is only part of the process, how- ever, and this brings us back to the screaming kids. Offered during the summer months for children in grades 2-12, the YSOS workshops mentioned earlier are the children’s equiv- alent of the well-known Security Overseas Seminar, which is a requirement for all foreign affairs employees going over- seas. (It is recommended that eligible family members take it, too.) The Advanced Overseas Seminar provides an update to fulfill the five-year requirement. Other course offerings include Regulations, Allowances, and Finances, the ever-popular Protocol and U.S. Representation Abroad, Communicating Across Cultures, and Realities of Foreign Service Life. The Career Transition Center pro- vides training, counseling and other assistance to those planning for retirement. The CTC conducts two flagship programs: the Job Search Program and the Retirement Planning Seminar. In addition, the CTC offers a one-day Financial Management and Estate Planning Seminar and a one- day seminar on Annuities, Benefits, and Social Security, usually taken mid-career, far before retirement. The CTC also maintains a Talent Bank of employees and retirees who wish to be informed of job leads developed by the Center. The CTC sends a monthly electronic newslet- ter containing job leads compiled from numerous sources to all participants in the Talent Bank. TC employees have lived and worked abroad in coun- tries all over the world and pass on information and knowledge from an insider’s perspective. The face-to- face customer service the TC provides is enhanced by the information it offers electronically, via the Web, or through the use of take-away products such as CDs, DVDs, and videos. Wherever you are in the world, at whatever stage of life in the foreign affairs community you may find yourself, the TC is ready to offer you guidance and resources. The Transition Center is open weekdays from 8:15 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and on select Wednesday evenings and Saturdays. The Shultz Center is a controlled-access facili- ty, and non-State personnel and eligible family members must be properly enrolled or registered for site access. For more information, call (703) 302-7272 or visit http://www. state.gov/m/fsi/tc/. — Heidi Whitesell, Transition Center The Transition Center: Focusing on Life in the Foreign Service The OBC offers a depth and breadth of information on overseas life that is not available elsewhere in a centralized location.