The Foreign Service Journal, September 2019

42 SEPTEMBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL G rowing up in the Foreign Service can be challenging. While an inter- nationally mobile childhood pro- vides benefits such as an expanded worldview and deepened maturity, it can also present challenges. The nomadic lifestyle can cause con- fused cultural identities, difficulties adjusting to new environments and feelings of rootlessness due to repeatedly leaving homes, schools, friends and countries. Thirty years ago, the Foreign Service Youth Foundation was founded to help our young people embrace the adventure of their transient upbringing by encouraging resilience and foster- ing camaraderie. Here is the story of FSYF’s origin and current activities. Foreign Service Youth Foundation: 30Years of Service John K. Naland is president of the Foreign Service Youth Foundation. He has served on the AFSA Governing Board as president (two terms) and as State vice president; he is currently in his second term as retiree vice president. He and his wife raised two daughters in the Foreign Service. Three decades after its founding, FSYF remains focused on helping our young people adapt to changing environments as they transition between posts worldwide. BY JOHN K . NALAND “Where Are You From?” FSYF grew out of a group named Around the World in a Lifetime (AWAL) that was co-founded in 1983 by the Foreign Service Institute’s Overseas Briefing Center, the State Depart- ment’s Family Liaison Office and the Association of American Foreign Service Women (later rebranded as the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide—AAFSW). AWAL focused on connecting D.C.-area Foreign Service teens to each other through a variety of social activities. In early 1989, FLO Director Maryann Minutillo and OBC Director Lee Lacy formed a Youth Project Committee that included representatives of AAFSW, AWAL, the State Depart- ment’s Medical Department and State’s Office of Overseas Schools. FLO staffer Kay Eakin played a key role, as did AWAL President Phyllis Habib. The working group’s objective was to find ways to do a better job of helping Foreign Service youth make the most difficult adjustment of all: returning “home” to the United States, which they may have only experienced on short vacations, and trans- ferring to a school where other students may not appreciate their multicultural outlooks. As Third Culture Kids (TCKs), the children of U.S. citizen employees assigned overseas under chief of mission author- FEATURE