Middlebury Alumna Awarded Pickering Fellowship
Jaewon Oh ’13 has received a Thomas R. Pickering Fellowship and will continue her studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies this fall.
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – A Middlebury alumna has been named a 2018 Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellows. Jaewon Oh, who graduated in 2013 with a degree in International and Global Studies and a minor in German, will continue her education at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies starting this fall studying nonproliferation with a focus in Russian. Thirty Graduate Fellowships were awarded to a group of highly competitive candidates. Hundreds of applicants from more than 200 colleges and universities competed for the selective fellowship.
Managed and funded by the Department of State and administered by The Washington Center, the Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship offers students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to pursue a career in the U.S. Foreign Service. Consideration is given to qualified applicants who, in addition to outstanding leadership skills and academic achievement, demonstrate financial need.
“I applied for the Pickering because I have a passion for service and it looked like this fellowship would provide incredible opportunities to serve our country in valuable ways,” said Oh. “I had also been resisting the thought of the foreign service for a while, but it became clear to me more recently that the foreign service would allow me to use my skills and passions for both maximum impact and personal fulfillment.”
Recipients of the Pickering Fellowship receive two years of financial support, mentoring and professional development to prepare them for a career in the Foreign Service. Fellows also complete a domestic internship at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. and an overseas internship at a U.S. embassy.
“I would love to eventually make an impact on nuclear policy relating to North Korea, specifically,” said Oh. “But I’m also passionate about national security issues and foreign policy more generally, so we’ll see where the foreign service takes me!”
The Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program honors one of the most accomplished U.S. Foreign Service Officers of the 20th century. Ambassador Pickering was appointed Career Ambassador, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service. He served in many leading positions around the world during his Foreign Service career, including Ambassador to Nigeria, El Salvador, Israel, India, and Russia. Ambassador Pickering concluded his career as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.