The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2022

AFSA NEWS 70 JULY-AUGUST 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA Welcomes Newest FS Members At a series of events in April and May, AFSA was pleased to welcome new members of the Foreign Service and intro- duce them to the work of the association. The events included virtual meetings with a Foreign Commercial Service class and a USAID class, as well as in-person lunches with the State Department’s joint Foreign Service orientation 164-210 class. AFSA President Eric Rubin welcomed all groups, explain- ing whom the association represents and outlining its ongoing work for members, collectively and individually. Meeting in person with the State class, which was split up into four small lunch events on May 12 and 13, State VP Tom Yazdgerdi discussed the role of labor management. Director of Programs and Member Engagement Christine Miele then spoke about the ben- efits of AFSA membership and led a Q&A session. Each table had a “table host,” an active-duty or retired mem- ber of the Foreign Service, seated alongside the new FS members to answer ques- tions about a career in the Foreign Service and AFSA’s role. These back-to-back lunches were the first in- person events welcoming new orientation classes in more than two years, and AFSA was delighted to have the chance to meet the new- est FS members over a meal at its headquarters. The new State class was made up of 85 generalists (11 economic, 13 consular, 14 management, 20 public diplomacy and 27 political cone) and 97 specialists (with the largest subgroup consisting of 37 Diplomatic Security special agents). It contained six Presidential Management Fellows, six former Consular Fellows and 11 Mustang Program Civil Service conversions. Among the class mem- bers are individuals who have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, sung opera on a Chinese game show, worked for NASA and issued the last non- immigrant visa from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Languages spoken include the “big six” of the United Nations, as well as Azerbaijani, Croatian, Dari, Dutch, German, Hausa, Hindi, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kosraean (of Micronesia), Marathi, Mongolian, Norwegian, Persian, Portuguese, Roma- nian, Swahili, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, Urdu and Yoruba. The newest FCS class, which met virtually with AFSA and FCS VP Jay Carreiro on April 30, is made up 14 mem- bers who have been assigned to Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand and Turkey. USAID’s C3 Class 29, which met virtually with AFSA and USAID VP Jason Singer on April 4, has 15 members across six backstops: five population, health and nutri- tion officers; three financial management officers; three environmental officers; two contracting officers; one education officer and one humanitarian officer. The new USAID FSOs speak a combined total of 18 languages and have worked and studied in 57 countries. Many also have experience working for USAID, nonprofit and humanitarian organiza- tions, the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. n AFSA hosted the State Department’s joint Foreign Service orientation 164-210 class for in-person luncheons on May 12 and 13. AFSA/HANNAHMCDANIEL