The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2017

60 JULY-AUGUST 2017 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS iLead Speaker Series Features AFSA President On April 21, AFSA President Ambassador Barbara Ste- phenson spoke on commu- nication in leadership at the State Department. The event was organized by the depart- ment’s Culture of Leadership Initiative (iLead). iLead is a voluntary group of employees work- ing together to strengthen leadership skills and practice throughout the department. Following its inaugural Leader- ship Day in December, the group has organized a series of speakers, which began with a discussion on “model- ing integrity” given by State Department Transparency Coordinator Janice Jacobs. Amb. Stephenson’s talk covered the importance of communication in leadership. “Each of us has an obligation to lead fromwhere we are,” she stated, and discussed her experiences as a leader throughout her career. It can be hard to define what leader- ship is, Amb. Stephenson continued, but it is possible to define what a leader does . Amb. Stephenson recom- mended “active listening” as a first step in leading a team, and emphasized the impor- tance of a consistent clear message when engaging with strategic partners. It is also important, she said, to listen to those partners, who may have a different cultural or agency perspective, and to factor these perspectives into the overall vision. Following her remarks, Amb. Stephenson participated in a question and answer session with the enthusiastic audience. n —Gemma Dvorak, Associate Editor AFSA ANNOUNCES NAT I ONAL H I GH SCHOOL ESSAY CONTEST WI NNER Nicholas DeParle 11th grade Sidwell Friends School Chevy Chase, Maryland Nicholas will receive a $2,500 prize, a meeting with the Secretary of State and a tour of the U.S. Insti- tute for Peace, and a full-tuition-paid voyage with Semester at Sea on his enrollment at an accredited university. Coverage of Nicholas’s visit will appear in a future issue of AFSA News. RUNNER - UP Manuel E. Feigl 12th grade Brashier Middle College Charter High School Simpsonville, South Carolina Manuel will receive a $1,250 prize and a full scholarship to participate in the International Diplo- macy Program of the National Student Leadership Conference, held in Washington, D.C., annually. n NEWS BRIEF Join us for Happy Hours Since fall 2016, AFSA has hosted several networking happy hours, drawing more than 60 people to each event in the first six months of 2017. These events offer attend- ees the opportunity to min- gle, share experiences and news, and reconnect with the Washington, D.C., Foreign Service community as they come back from assignments overseas. At right, AFSA members, staff and guests at the June 1 happy hour. Non-members are welcome to attend future happy hours, where they can learn more about the Foreign Service and the work its members do. Visit the AFSA website, www.afsa.org/events, for information about upcom- ing Happy Hours and other interesting events through AFSA. n