The Foreign Service Journal, November 2016

24 NOVEMBER 2016 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Personal Stories from FSO Fulbright Alumni B E R L I N , 2 0 0 2 – 2 0 0 3 C O L L E E N T R A U G H B E R I arrived at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science at the Free University of Berlin in the fall of 2002 with a Germany- centered project—and left a year later with a much broader perspective and an interest in the Foreign Service. My actual project was to study German identity and analyze how it was being influenced by the ongoing enlargement of the European Union. But practically frommy first days there, I was swept up in a student movement protesting U.S. policy toward Iraq and the impending invasion (“Kein Krieg gegen den Irak!” = No war against Iraq!) complete with leaflets, signs, information booths and organized discussions. During the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion, I researched the U.S. debate over Iraq during my internship at the German Council on Foreign Relations. Once the invasion of Iraq began, I joined the Trans-Atlantic Student Forum, a network of university students in Berlin from both sides of the Atlantic, and authored a piece with the group on the differences between European and American security cultures. I later joined a fellow German student to organize a town hall and panel discussion at the Free University on “German-American Relations in a Time of Terror.” I concluded my time in Berlin with an internship at the Ger- man Parliament (Bundestag), where I was privy to key discus- sions on German foreign policy. It was a critical moment in trans-Atlantic relations, and it was clear that we needed as much conversation and exchange of ideas as possible to maintain the relationship. My experience in Berlin exposed me to different perspectives on foreign policy. It encouraged me to consider the importance of our European partners, including Germany, and taught me that the trans-Atlantic relationship is not imperishable. Finally, it impressed on me the importance of global citizen- ship and approaching world affairs frommultiple perspectives. It thus set the stage for my future work in the Middle East and Europe, and sparked an interest in multilateral affairs. My Fulbright experience in Germany also introduced me to the Foreign Service as a career path. I met my first Foreign Service officer, Richard Schmierer, at a Fulbright event in Berlin. Then minister-counselor for public affairs, he not only served as a resource for me on the Foreign Service (answering every one of my emails!), but also included me in a public affairs outreach program to German schools after the Iraq invasion. After all these experiences, I was hooked on becoming a diplomat. Colleen Traughber is an international relations officer in the Office of Peace Operations, Sanctions and Counterterrorism in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs at the State Department. She previously served in Copenhagen and Sanáa, and on the European Union desk. B E L F A S T , 2 0 0 1 – 2 0 0 2 J E R O M E S H E R M A N I n September 2001, just a few months after I graduated from college, two events took place that set me on the path to becoming a Foreign Service officer. The first was a phone call from London, telling me that I had received a grant from the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission. I’ll never forget hearing that posh British accent on my answering machine. I listened to the recording a dozen times to make sure I wasn’t imagining it. The Fulbright grant was going to pay for me to study international relations at the Queen’s University of Belfast in Northern Ire- land. This had been a dream of mine since I took a three-day trip to Belfast a few years before. It was the first time I had seen a society divided by religious or ethnic conflict. British soldiers Colleen Traughber during her Fulbright year in Germany. COURTESYOFCOLLEENTRAUGHBER