22 SEPTEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL MESSAGE FROM THE HILL From FS Kid to FS Champion in Congress FSJ Editor Shawn Dorman: I’d like to start by asking if you could say anything for our Foreign Service readers about what it meant growing up in the Foreign Service and how that has influenced your work and life. Senator Chris Van Hollen: Yes, I was very proud to grow up in a Foreign Service family. My father’s family is from Baltimore originally, and then he went into the Navy and from there into the Foreign Service. My mother was the daughter of an English teacher, but she became a Russian language expert. She was very good at languages and actually worked at the forerunner of the CIA, the OSS. They met in Washington. Back in those days, the Foreign Service was not nearly as friendly and accommodating of two-career spouses. And that’s part of my motivation for the legislation that I’ve worked on, including the Foreign Service Families Act. But it was a great experience growing up overseas, like I think it is for most Foreign Service families. We were proud to represent the United States and support the values and principles we stand for. I will say, if you’re growing up in a Foreign Service family, it causes you to hold up a mirror and ask yourself whether we are as good back home as we represent ourselves overseas. And so that has also led me to push for social change here in the United States. Growing up overseas, as you know, means moving back and forth. I was born in Karachi. We then came back to the United States, then to Türkiye, then back Senator Van Hollen with Pearson Fellow FSO Catherine Miller-Little. COURTESY OF CHRIS VAN HOLLEN A CONVERSATION WITH SENATOR CHRIS VAN HOLLEN Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), an attorney and politician, has served as the junior U.S. senator from Maryland since 2017. Prior to that, he represented Maryland’s 8th congressional district in the House from 2003 to 2017. He is a founding co-chair, with Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), of the Senate Foreign Service Caucus. The son of a career U.S. ambassador, he grew up in the Foreign Service. Editor in Chief Shawn Dorman spoke with him on June 3.
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