Whether he’s jetting off to a foreign country in the middle of the night or putting together a Model United Nations conference, Ryan Kesapyan (SFS ’09), the conferences coordinator of International Relations Club, is Georgetown’s own Kofi Annan.

Kesapyan has traveled all around Europe and taken multiple trips to the Middle East. Although he has been involved in Model United Nations since his freshman year of high school, his experiences at Georgetown have only enhanced his desire to go into diplomacy after graduation.

The Los Angeles native has traveled a long way on his journey to the Hilltop and hopes to go a lot further. While Kesapyan can regularly be seen chatting with friends in Red Square, he dreams to conduct business around the Kremlin in Moscow one day.

What does your job entail?

It entails basically planning all the logistical needs for the conferences we attend. The International Relations Club attends four to five conferences a year in which we participate as countries and negotiate and service delegates to respective international bodies, be it the United Nations Security Council, cabinet simulations, so on and so forth.

How did you get involved with the International Relations Club?

I did Model United Nations all four years of high school, so it was just a slow progression for me that has slowly taken over my life. It’s time consuming, but it’s very enjoyable.

I hear you’ve been to Qatar.

I went twice, actually. The first time I went was last March and I also went this month. I flew out there from Los Angeles. Basically, what I did, along with four or five others, was help odel United Nations simulations at the School of Foreign Service-Qatar in Doha, which had participants from all over the iddle East and Gulf states come and negotiate and serve as countries in this Model U.N.

What’s the craziest thing you saw in Qatar?

I saw about 80 skyscrapers lined up in [Doha’s] new, budding skyline. It’s the next Dubai.

What do you aspire to do after college?

Hopefully, in some capacity, diplomacy.

Where else have you traveled?

Other than Qatar, I’ve been to France, Italy, Spain and I just got back from a Model United Nations trip in Montreal, in Canada, just last night. I took a 12-hour bus ride and got back at 3:30 in the morning.

What else do you plan on doing with the International Relations Club?

It entails quite a bit of traveling. In Montreal, for example, we rented a bus and took 40 kids, and it took us 12 hours to get there. It involves travel all up and down the East Coast. We attend conferences at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, Princeton and also Columbia University.

What other countries do you plan to visit?

I want to go back to Qatar, and I’m planning to take the 30-minute trip to Dubai from Doha at least once and also travel throughout Oman.

Of all the countries in the world, which would you like to be an ambassador to?

Russia. It’s fascinating. I’m studying the language now, and I think it has a lot of potential but also a lot of problems that need to be dealt with, both diplomatically and with a true free market as well.

What’s the food like in Qatar?

It’s your typical Middle East fare – lots of kebab, rice, hummus, tahini, the usual.

Big fan of Quick Pita?

(Laughing) You could say that, yeah.

– Interview by Harlan Goode