A junior International Studies and Asian Studies major in Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Robert E. Cook Honors College has been selected for a national fellowship.
Sarah Flewelling, of Pittsfield, Maine, was chosen for the Pickering Fellowship, which is offered by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in pursuing Foreign Service careers in the U.S. Department of State.
Awardees must show financial need and represent areas of need within the Foreign Service. Foreign Service offices are located at more than 265 embassies, consulates, and other diplomatic missions in the Americas, Africa, Europe, East Asia and the Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, and South and Central Asia.
The Pickering Fellowship assists students by offering mentors and experiences that will help them succeed in a Foreign Service career. The fellowship also pays all expenses for the junior and senior years of college as well as the first year of graduate school.
As a Pickering Fellowship recipient, Flewelling will attend the Junior Year Institute this summer, complete an internship in Washington, D.C., after her senior year, and do an internship at an embassy abroad after her first year of graduate school.
Unrelated to the fellowship, Flewelling will be studying at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan for the 2009–2010 academic year. She will return to IUP for her senior year, then enroll in IUP's master's degree program in International Studies. She is completing coursework at IUP in International Studies and the Arabic language.
In order to become a Foreign Service officer, applicants must take written and oral exams and complete an interview process. Foreign Service officers choose one of five tracks: management, political, economic, consular, or public diplomacy.
“From what I've learned at the Pickering Fellowship orientation, I think I would like to go into the public diplomacy track, working with the country in which I am stationed to represent America,” Flewelling said.
“Over the years in high school and college, I've worked with many international students. I hope that this fellowship will free up my time to work with even more.”