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The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Record Number Of SFS Students, Graduates Receive Pickering Fellowship

Seven, a record number of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (SFS) students and graduates, received the 2022 Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship. 

The selective fellowship, administered by Howard University, awards 45 students with up to $42,000 annually for a two-year period covering tuition, room and board and other expenses to support the completion of two-year master’s degrees in a field related to foreign service work. 

Anna Yuan / The Hoya | A record number of Georgetown Students received the 2022 Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship awarding students with up to $42,000 annually for a two-year period.

The fellowship also coordinates two summer internship opportunities — one domestic and one overseas — for the students. Upon completion of their master’s degrees, fellows receive appointments in the U.S. State Department’s foreign service, either abroad or domestic, and must commit to at least five years of service. 

Along with the Donald M. Payne International Development Fellowship, which seeks to attract individuals interested in foreign service, and the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program, which trains individuals interested in international service, the Pickering Fellowship aims to diversify the U.S. foreign service through support of women, those with financial need and other minority groups that have been historically underrepresented in foreign service. 

This year’s Pickering Fellows include Brenda Coromina (SFS ’21), Desmond Ferrell (SFS ’18, GRD ’21), Ibilola Owoyele (SFS ’17), Arthur Rodriguez (SFS ’20), Laura Romero (SFS ’18), Diana Sosa (SFS ’19), and Julio Salmeron-Perla (SFS ’22). Grant Castle (SFS ’21) will join the Payne program’s 2022 cohort.

The Pickering Fellowship provides a unique opportunity for students to bring their personal backgrounds and experiences into the foreign service, according to Salmeron-Perla.

“I’m a proud Hispanic American, and I’m really proud to be bringing that diversity into the State Department,” Salmeron-Perla said in an interview with The Hoya. “It’s kind of like I’m diving into the sea of the unknown, because I don’t know where I’m gonna be sent to, I don’t know what I’m going to be doing just yet. That’s really thrilling, because I think I’m ready to just be thrown into any part of the world.”

Recipients of these fellowships will represent Georgetown values in their willingness to confront today’s global challenges, according to SFS Dean Joel Hellman. 

“At this moment of unprecedented change in the global order, there could not be a more pressing challenge than attracting the nation’s best and brightest into careers of service,” Hellman wrote in an email to The Hoya. “The Pickering, Rangel, and Payne fellowships ensure that those future leaders will represent the true diversity of our nation in tackling global challenges.”

As a partner school to the Pickering Fellowship, Georgetown has produced 149 Pickering fellows since the program’s founding in 1992. 

The Georgetown curriculum prepares students for careers in foreign service, according to Coromina.

“I’m much more prepared for the kind of work that I’m doing and the kind of work that I will do in the foreign service because of the curriculum at Georgetown,” Coromina said in an interview with The Hoya, “It covers such a broad range where I feel like it’s really prepared me to handle pretty much anything that comes my way.”

Salmeron-Perla looks forward to inspiring future Hispanic American students who wish to work in foreign service. 

“I’m excited to learn more about different cultures, different people and their countries,” Salmeron-Perla said in an interview with The Hoya. “And I’m also excited to be a source of support for future Hispanic American students here at Georgetown who also want to pursue this path later on in life.”

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