AFSA NEWS 80 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA Announces 2025 High School Essay Contest Winner AFSA is proud to announce that Jackson Simmons- Furlati, a rising junior in the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy in Goleta, Calif., is the winner of the 2025 AFSA National High School Essay Contest. The prize includes a funded Semester at Sea in college, $2,500, and a trip to Washington, D.C. His essay, “Vietnam’s Foreign Service Legacy: Shaping Trump’s 2025 Diplomacy,” explores the Vietnam War as a turning point in U.S. foreign policy and examines how its diplomatic lessons continue to inform, and sometimes clash with, current approaches to global challenges. Outside the classroom, Jackson is passionate about food justice and environmental policy. He leads a student initiative that grows hydroponic lettuce and delivers 100 free salads each week to his school community. He is also a pianist in a classical trio, a Yale Young Global Scholar, and a Carnegie Young Leaders for Civic Preparedness fellow. This past summer, he spoke at the 2025 UN Ocean Conference in Nice as part of Refuse and Reuse, a youth-led group working to eliminate single-use plastics in schools. During his award trip to Washington, D.C., Jackson met with Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink, former U.S. Jackson Simmons-Furlati AFSA/HANNAH HARARI Jackson meets with former Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel J. Kritenbrink. Chief Political Officer Tran Chi Trung hosts Jackson at the Embassy of Vietnam. ambassador to Vietnam and assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He also visited the Embassy of Vietnam for a briefing with Chief Political Officer Tran Chi Trung. In addition, his schedule included a Foreign Service 101 session with AFSA Board Member Julie Nutter, lunch at Viet Kitchen with AFSA President John “Dink” Dinkelman, and a tour of DACOR Bacon House. “Wisdom, experience, and facts should never be sidelined, canceled, or brushed off. In a world of hot takes, I’m learning to value honest conversation. The kind that asks more than it answers,” Jackson reflected on his win in a LinkedIn post. This year’s runner-up is Anne Lee, and the judges also recognized eight honorable mentions: Alex Cox, Jack Zhang, James Obasiolu, Gilberto Moreno Flores, Atharv Gupta, Steven Jiang, Ethan Bai, and Jake Silberstein. AFSA thanks all students who entered this year’s AFSA/HANNAH HARARI contest as well as our valued educational partners, the National Student Leadership Conference and Semester at Sea. You can read Jackson’s winning essay at https:// afsa.org/2025-high-schoolessay-contest-winningessay. n
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