The Center of International Studies Undergraduate Fellows Program sponsored the International Career Forum yesterday, bringing together graduate students in the Woodrow Wilson School to speak to undergraduates.
About a dozen Wilson School graduate students shared career insights at the forum, including five panelists who were selected to represent a wide range of international backgrounds, such as the Peace Corps, the Foreign Service, Doctors Without Borders and numerous other nongovernmental organizations.
"It was a chance to put undergraduates in touch with graduate students on campus," Career Forum chair Richelle Blanchard '04 said. "There's [usually] not a whole lot of interaction, and they're a tremendous resource with incredible, inspiring experiences."
Graduate participants echoed the same sentiments. "We as grad students are secretly itching to lay our wisdom on you [the undergraduate community]," panelist Suerie Moon said.
The CIS Undergraduate Fellows Program was looking to satisfy a demand for career information they felt was not being satisfied by Career Services, which cosponsored the forum, Blanchard said.
"Career Services makes an attempt to recruit international business, but the career focus on campus is in the private sector and only domestic," Blanchard said. "There is a gap on campus, and a whole lot of students don't want to be an I-banker. We wanted to make available resources to those students."
Organizers of the forum said they wanted to use it as a jumping-off point for undergraduates — specifically seniors — preparing to take the plunge into the deep end of the real world and a possible career in international affairs.
"This is a kind of attempt to answer the question, 'How do we get started?'" said Gary Bass, Wilson School and politics professor. "It is intended to be a first step into some kind of careers in international affairs."
After the presentations from the panel members, all the graduate students were available to talk to interested students on an individual basis in the Schultz Dining Room.
"I think it's good to get the perspective of a group of people only a few years older than we are, but their wealth of experience far exceeds our own," said Gabe Collins '05, one of the nearly 80 students who attended the presentations. "It gives us a firsthand view of what we can be doing in a few years."
More than 20 graduate students confirmed that they would participate, according to Blanchard, but about a dozen came to discuss their experience and to do some scratching.
Chair of the CIS Undergraduate Fellows Program, Anika Binnendijk '03, quickly labeled the forum a success.
"We were really pleased with the turnout and with the quality of the presentations of the graduate students," she said. "It gave undergraduates the chance to see what young people within five to 10 years of themselves had done. It was exciting to see how they got started, and they gave some good ideas."
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