The Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative has given me an invaluable window into public service and offered me an excellent opportunity to see what a career in federal government has to offer. I have been able to see firsthand US diplomacy and foreign policy in action and I have been given the opportunity to work side by side with the best the US government has to offer. I have been challenged and greatly rewarded as a Scholar and the experiences SINSI offers are unparalleled.

As I'm writing this email, I am in one of Tanzania's most rural districts, Mpanda; this is the district in which we piloted our implementation plan for the national distribution of (anti-malaria) bed nets for all kids under the age of 5. One of my thesis chapters was on the policies of bed net distribution, and now I am learning about the realities surrounding the very policy I researched! My colleagues at USAID and CDC have really welcomed me. They have given me a positive view of working for the USG, without hiding their frustrations in working for the government too. The teamwork here is truly a model of how a group of diverse stake holders can support a resource-constrained government to achieve its policy goal. I am sure that establishing the SINSI program was not an easy undertaking. Thank you for all your efforts – I am very grateful beneficiary.

Thanks to SINSI I have had the chance to manage real responsibilities one year out of college. As a desk officer at the US Treasury Department, I have advised senior policy makers on international macroeconomic and financial developments, regularly consulted private sector, multilateral and interagency contacts in developing my analysis. Through these first-hand experiences, SINSI has shown me the positive role government can have in society, reaffirming my hopes of a rewarding career in public service.

As an engineering student, I was always drawn to service but was unaware of the many opportunities for engineers in the federal government. This program has opened my eyes to these opportunities while providing me with the critical support and guidance to make the most of my experience. Princeton University's dedication to service and the School’s dedication to this program make SINSI exceptional.

The idea of public service and affecting US foreign policy was always attractive to me, but I often found it difficult to identify attractive opportunities – positions that would fully utilize and expand my skills and interests in East Asian affairs. Through SINSI I was placed in one of the most dynamic offices in the Department of Defense, working on military policy issues as a China desk officer. From the first weeks of work, I was directly contributing to the highest levels of US-China defense dialogue and regularly working with top-level US and Chinese military leaders and policy officials. Because of the SINSI program's unparalleled guidance and resources, I found a position that truly applied and expanded my education.

Ever since I came to Princeton, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in government service, but I wasn’t sure how to get an internship or job doing substantive work to address America’s pressing public policy issues. I knew I wanted to make as big a contribution as possible to the nation’s response to the largest economic downturn in decades. SINSI’s deep resources, experience and a track record of working with students to place them in exciting positions in the federal government were essential to securing my internship and fellowship. Students may worry about making a commitment for several years, but SINSI has opened up professional and academic opportunities that no other undergraduate could access. I would strongly recommend any student interested in public policy and making a difference in government service seriously consider the SINSI program.

My initial intent as an undergraduate was to enter directly into graduate school to learn everything I could about international relations before I embarked on my quest to change the world as a naïve but well-intentioned public servant. Accepting the SINSI scholarship put a detour in my plans that I would not have fully appreciated as an undergraduate student, but I am grateful for in hindsight. As a Europe desk officer with the Department of the Army, every day I am faced with situations teaching me how to navigate good ideas through institutions, personalities and conflicting ideologies in order to positively influence the world around me. Working in the federal government has provided me with knowledge that cannot be taught in a classroom, an acute sense of what the military refers to as “situational awareness” – the cultivation of which has made me a more capable public servant and a stronger future student at the Woodrow Wilson School.

It can be difficult to break into federal agencies because many require at least a master’s degree. Through SINSI, I’ve had unparalleled opportunity to start my career with USAID. With SINSI’s flexibility, my bosses and I have structured my job as regional representative for USAID in the Peruvian province of Cajamarca supporting USAID programs in poverty reduction, decentralization, nutrition and education. As I serve in this role, I learn more about USAID and its day-to-day work with municipal governments, corporate foundations, businesses and individual beneficiaries. When I explain my job to my colleagues at USAID, many are a little envious and wish they’d had similar opportunities early in their careers. Their positive reactions about SINSI and the types of positions it makes accessible to students underscores my incredible fortune as a Scholar to work with and learn from experienced career foreign service officers while taking real responsibility for the day-to-day implementation of USAID programs.

Through SINSI I have been given opportunities I thought would only come much later in my career. At my summer internship at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, I am helping to shape the agency’s policies on addressing climate change through economic development. Months after entering the SINSI program, I am already embarking on the career I seek.

The SINSI program offered me the opportunity to work on the most high profile foreign policy issues right after college and provided me with invaluable work experience to apply to my graduate degree program. As an Iran Desk Officer at the State Department, I had an unprecedented window into policy formulation from the ground up during the Presidential transition and the Obama Administration’s Iran policy review. With SINSI’s help and support I found myself in a position in which my work directly contributed to the highest levels of foreign policy decision-making on one of the most pressing and dynamic international issues. My experience in the field – reporting on Iran’s post-election crisis from Dubai – offered an unparalleled opportunity to witness how reporting overseas contributes to policymaking in Washington and provided an invaluable preview to work as a Foreign Service Officer. These experiences and placements, which most career diplomats would jump to have a chance at, would never have been available to a recent college graduate without SINSI.

Many of the greatest problems facing our society are fundamentally engineering problems – climate change, energy independence, and nuclear proliferation amongst others. However, the solutions to these problems require innovative policy tools and international cooperation. Through SINSI and my fellowship with the Department of State, I now have the opportunity to apply my undergraduate studies to the interplay of technology and policy and to contribute to the formulation and analysis of climate change policy, especially as it pertains to Europe. Through SINSI, I have been able to pursue meaningful public service directly after college, an opportunity that most college graduates do not get until considerably later in their careers.

SINSI is invaluable. It has allowed me access and an insider’s view into the functioning of our federal bureaucracy and provided the skills and experience for a career in a field directly related to my interests. It lends structure to one’s immediate post-graduate years and creates a trajectory of both professional experience and continued academic instruction that leads to an actual career. The fellowship opportunities SINSI provides are extensive, inserting Scholars directly into federal agencies which affect public policy directly and immediately. The placements are at a level that most graduates would be hard pressed to secure on their own.