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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

SFS Centennial Fellows Bring Expertise to Georgetown

Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, retired General Wesley Clark, will be one of five School of Foreign Service Centennial Fellows this year. He and the other fellows will serve as resources for students and alumni by hosting events, discussions and office hours.

Former Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis (SFS ’76), activist and author Azar Nafisi, anthropologist Scott Guggenheim, and former Ambassador Catherine Novelli will also serve as SFS fellows this year.

GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE Scott Guggenheim, top left, Catherine Novelli, Ambassador Jeffrey Laurentis, Gen. Wesley K. Clark (ret.), and Dr. Azar Nafisi will serve as the SFS centennial fellows for the 2018-2019 academic year.

The five 2018-19 fellows will remain at Georgetown for a one-to-two semester residency and will work directly with a group of SFS undergraduates who will be designated junior fellows.

Clark, who served for 38 years in the U.S. Army and was a four-star general, will be a fellow for the fall and spring semesters. An Oxford alumnus who studied philosophy, politics and economics, Clark was the supreme allied commander Europe of NATO and led Operation Allied Force during the Kosovo War in 1999. He is also a recipient of the U.S. Department of State’s Open Forum Distinguished Service Award.

DeLaurentis will also be a centennial fellow for the full 2018-19 school year. He spent the past year at the Harvard Kennedy School as a senior diplomatic fellow for the Future of Diplomacy Project, which promotes the study of diplomacy and negation in international politics.

DeLaurentis worked as a Foreign Service officer for 27 years, beginning as a consular officer in Cuba. In 2016, he was named by former President Barack Obama as the first U.S. ambassador to Cuba in more than 50 years.

As a fellow, DeLaurentis hopes to encourage SFS graduates to pursue careers in public service through discussions of and reflections on his own experience.

“I hope to mostly promote public service — foreign service — as a worthy and important field for people to consider,” DeLaurentis said in an interview with The Hoya. “This was a career that I loved doing and I thought I was meant to do. And so I guess my objective is to try and seek out those who might have similar views and push them in this direction.”

As a graduate of the SFS, DeLaurentis expressed gratitude and excitement about the opportunity to return to the university as a fellow.

“To come back to one’s alma mater after many years, after doing the things that I dreamed about doing, and to offer my experiences, reflections, on the current student body is — it’s quite a trip,” DeLaurentis said. “It’s not only fun but I think very useful for me and for the students as well.”

Nafisi will begin her term as a fellow for the 2019 spring semester. Most recently, she was a fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Nafisi, in her best-selling book “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books,” offers a reflection on the Islamic revolution in Iran with a focus on a university professor and her students. She is recognized around the world for her activism in Iran, advocating for human rights for youth and young women in Iran.

Guggenheim, an anthropologist with a focus on local voices in large-scale development, will be serving as a fellow during fall 2018. He served as senior adviser to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, working on rebuilding government systems.

Novelli will be serving as a fellow during both semesters. She is president of Listening for America, a nonpartisan nonprofit promoting U.S. international trade engagement, and served as undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment.

Novelli hopes to use her expertise to bring a new perspective on international trade policy to the Georgetown community. She plans to work on projects relating to international trade education for the general public.

“I’m also planning to lecture in classes, as I’m invited to do that, and speak as well, on panels and things that Georgetown is putting on, so that I can bring my expertise there to the community at large,” Novelli said in an interview with The Hoya. “We are also looking at how we can engage Georgetown alumni on these trade issues as well.”

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