The Foreign Service Journal, November 2015

76 NOVEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA NEWS Now Available: AFSA College Scholarship Applications The American Foreign Service Association will begin accept- ing scholarship applications for the 2016-2017 academic year on Nov. 15. This year, AFSA anticipates granting nearly $260,000 in academic and art merit awards, a com- munity service award and financial aid scholarships to more than 75 Foreign Service children. For Incoming or Current Undergraduates • Need-based Financial Aid Scholarships: AFSA will award approximately 55 financial aid scholarships ranging from $3,000 to $5,000, depending on family financial situations, to attend an accredited two-year or four-year higher education institution in the United States or overseas. The deadline for submit- ting an AFSA financial aid scholarship application is March 6, 2016. For Graduating High School Seniors • Academic Merit Awards: AFSA will confer 13 academic merit awards of $2,500 each and two honor- able mentions of $1,000 each. A $500 best essay award will also be granted to one student from the appli- cant pool. • Art Merit Awards: AFSA will present one art merit prize of $2,500 and up to three honorable mentions valued at $1,000 each for artistic achievements within the following categories: visual arts, musical arts, performing arts and creative writing. • Community Service Award: Students can also compete for $2,500, which will be awarded to one student for distin- guished contribu- tions to the com- munity through service and volunteerism. To qualify, applicants must have applied for either the academic merit or art merit awards. The deadline for sub- mitting an AFSAmerit or community service award application is Feb. 6, 2016. Applicants must be tax- dependent children of AFSA members who are active- duty, retired, deceased or separated Foreign Service employees with the State Department, USAID, FCS, FAS, BBG or APHIS. If eligible, students can apply for all four awards. Not all who submit applications will receive aid. The AFSA Scholar- ship Fund’s endow- ment stands at more than $7 million, all of which comes from generous contri- butions. No AFSA member dues go toward the AFSA Scholarship Fund. This beneficial program has disbursed more than $4 million to 2,200 students in the last 25 years—all children of Foreign Service personnel and AFSAmembers. For questions regarding scholarships or for more information on becoming a member of AFSA, contact AFSAScholarship Director Lori Dec at scholar@afsa.org . Visit www.afsa.org/scholar to learn more about how to apply. n most pressing and promising issues. The gathering produced voluntary commitments by non-military state actors, civil society organizations and environmental and scientific experts to take action to miti- gate acidification, pollution and overfishing. This outcome would not have been possible but for the skilled efforts of the event’s organizers to build bridges for addressing a com- mon challenge. Stephenson’s message was aptly suited for the eve- ning’s agenda, during which Dame Nicola Brewer, retired senior diplomat at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and now UCL vice provost for international projects, launched UCL’s new Global Engagement Strategy. The GES is in line with the institution’s role as one of the leading multidisciplinary research universities in the world. The strategy’s purpose is to help convene leaders and develop experts capable of participating in “partner- ships of equivalence,” in which mutual trust and respect reign and the benefits flow in both directions—precisely the types of partnerships lauded by Stephenson. “You know how to identify stakeholders, how to tap into the latest research, how to frame an agenda and how to go about convening the right people around a problem set,” Stephenson concluded, urging audience members to join the cause. “Let’s not underestimate the impor- tance of a safe space for well- educated, well-intentioned people to come together to explore fair solutions to global challenges.” AFSA plans to launch a conversation on how the Foreign Service is ideally suited to fill the governance gap and hopes to sponsor a programmatic series,“The New Threat Set: Diplomacy and the Foreign Service in the Age of Globalization,” in the coming months. For more information about upcoming programs, visit www.afsa.org/events or email events@afsa.org . n —Maria C. Livingston, Associate Editor “New Threat Set” • Continued from page 69