Student Accomplishments: 2013 Experiential Education Award Recipients

Experiential Education Awards are given to Seton Hall students who exemplify servant leadership and have demonstrated personal and professional growth through internships.
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Jenna Raymond, Intern, NJ Transit Police Intelligence Unit
Master of Arts (May 2013), Diplomacy and International Relations
Approximately a million commuters utilize NJ Transit transportation on a daily basis.  Behind the scenes there is a special intelligence unit, which monitors and prevents criminal and terrorist activity.  During her internship experience, Ms. Raymond has proven to be an important team member of the Unit.  Her vigorous intelligence surveillance has provided crucial information to authorities.   In addition, Jenna’s daily internal memos became a reliable source of information for all staff members.  In the words of her supervisor “Jenna’s unrelenting work ethic, enthusiasm and dedication to both academic and personal growth ensured a positive experience throughout the internship and made her a valuable member of the Intelligence Section.”   Through this internship and her supervisors’ recommendations, Ms. Raymond is on her way to full time employment in the intelligence community.  Congratulations Jenna!
 
Paul Murphy, Intern, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and CNN’s Piers Morgan Show
Bachelor of Science (August 2013), Diplomacy and International Relations
 
As a transfer student at Seton Hall University, Mr. Murphy took advantage of the internship program at the Whitehead School of Diplomacy.  With the assistance of the Office of Internships’ Director and Graduate Assistant he was able to secure an internship at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in 2012; which served as a building experience toward his current internship at the CNN’s Pier Morgan Show.  Paul is currently quite busy assisting with the various national and international developing news stories.  Working in a fast-paced media environment, Paul has proved to deliver quality real-time work under tight deadlines.  As Paul anticipates graduating this summer, he plans to incorporate his experience and passion for communications/media with the international perspective.   We are excited to hear back with Mr. Murphy’s final decision as he is currently considering various employment offers. Congratulations Paul!

Internship Blog Series: International Rescue Committee

Jillian Mcallister is a graduate student interning at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) as a Continuing Education Intern. The IRC responds to humanitarian crises globally and assists refugees who have fled from war-torn countries. Read about her experiences with this organization, and the work that she does.

IRC

The major project I have been working on since January, and which gets a little tedious at times, is streamlining searching the City University of New York (CUNY) system to see if they have program that a client is interested in.  The CUNY system is comprised of 24 colleges, throughout the 5 boroughs, varying from associate degree community colleges to 4 year colleges.  However, some colleges are subject-specific such as the College of Journalism, and many others are Liberal Arts schools.  As someone unfamiliar with the system, I discovered there is no easy way to search across all campuses for a program.  Thus, I am developing a Master List of colleges by borough and what undergraduate, graduate, and certificate programs they offer.  Now that it is just about finished at nearly 40 pages, it is still quite cumbersome once you identify a program in a college with a wide variety of majors, to find the name of the school and subsequently which borough.  Thus, I am now trying to streamline this process further.

I have also worked on comparatively smaller projects such as translating important terms for IRC for newly arrived clients, from English to Spanish.  I adopted one intake sheet used for tracking college application processes to be used for all clients when we initially meet with them and map out a plan to help them pursue their educational goals.  As we often discuss quite a few options in our meetings. I give them a copy of this sheet after each meeting if notes were added in subsequent meetings, to help slow the potential head spinning a day or 2 later.  We also plan to use the data on these intake sheets to supplement the monitoring and tracking for our monthly reports on demographics and services provided.

Some of our clients had prior education in their home country that they may not have been able to pursue further or it may have gotten interrupted due to conflict.  In such cases, I need to determine if the client has documentation of previous education such as transcripts and/or diploma, and what they equate to here in the US.  Some are in the native language and need to be translated and evaluated, some are in English and need to be evaluated as to equivalency in the US.  I also advise students on agencies that provide these services.  This is quite a new experience for me.  I have spent over an hour with a client and on the phone with a variety of agencies because what the client had—a single, original, opened version of her transcript in English—did not meet what they wanted—an official, original, sealed version—and thus would not evaluate it.  After an hour I located an agency in Miami who stated the same requirements as the other agencies, but understood what the situation was in the client’s home country, Iraq, and would accept the original as she had it.  It took me that long to locate an agency who would work with her, considering I have a list of agencies who provided these services, could explain exactly what the situation was, and am a native speaker of English.  I could not imagine having to do it from her position and thus why I was glad to spend that much time on it.  At one point I had considered sending her home, telling her I would work on it, and contact her when I had an answer.  But at that point we were no further than when her case worker brought her to me, so I felt I couldn’t send her away.  She was so thankful for me just calling around to different agencies, and it encouraged me to continue what I was doing.

Student Publications: Writing on International Political Economy

K.Campbell

 

 

 

Graduate students in Dr. Chris Young’s International Political Economy course were asked to write opinion pieces on hot topics in political economy. Here is a piece about Syria, and why it “(still) matters,” written by first year student Kate Campbell.

 

Why Syria (still) Matters

Kate Campbell

As the conflict in Syria wages on, many people have lost interest. Although they feel bad about the human rights violations and the loss of lives, Syria doesn’t matter much to the average American who views this as just another road block to peace in the Middle East; but it should matter. Not only is Syria important for the regional dynamics of the ever so fragile Middle East, it also has larger global implications for the economy, foreign policy, our troops, and, to quote Bush II, “the war on terror.”

What many Americans don’t realize is the strategic location of Syria. A quick glance at the map will show us that Syria is surrounded by Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey. The spillover effect of the conflict has very real implications for the stability of these countries.  According to UN estimates, the refugee count has just hit the 1,000,000 mark, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping. In Turkey, the PKK (a Kurdish terror organization) is using the refugee population to infiltrate and execute terror attacks within the country. The refugee population also has the potential to incite radical behavior in relatively stable countries, like Jordan. To help combat these unwanted side-effects, the US has increased their foreign aid to many of these countries, spending more money that we cannot afford.

In addition to the terror acts in Turkey, Syria has become a safe haven for al Qaeda and other terror organizations. The shared border with Iraq has allowed al Qaeda to float between the two countries, causing more sectarian violence in Iraq. Of greater concern are the chemical weapons that reside in Syria. Not only are these weapons dangerous if Assad decides to use them against his own people, but also if they fall into the wrong hands. The US is working with Jordan to help secure these weapons, but who knows how long they will remain unused.

Another adverse effect of the Syrian Spill Over is the sectarian violence occurring in Lebanon. Saudi Arabia is funneling weapons to Syrian rebels in Lebanon, and Iran is funneling weapons to Hezbollah and the Assad regime. This has caused armed conflict between the Sunnis and the Shi’as once again in Lebanon, and has the potential to become a proxy war of sorts between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

A larger effect of the Syrian conflict is the growing influence of Iran in the region. As the Arab states become weaker, Iran becomes stronger. Failing Syria provides them the opportunity to flow weapons to not only Assad, but also Hezbollah, and Hamas. This means trouble for Israel, who views Iran as an existential threat and is often attacked by both Hezbollah and Hamas.

We should not only focus on the negative effects of the conflict though. It’s also important to think about the potential good that could come from a resolution of the conflict, assuming the fall of Assad. The US and Europe has implemented sanctions against Syria for years. However, with a new regime, these sanctions could possibly be lifted, opening up more opportunities for international trade. Syria has oil, but most countries have sanctions against their oil production. Providing a new source for oil would lower the global strain on resources, even just a bit. Eventually Syria could engage in trade relations with Israel. The Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZs) that have been implemented in Jordan and Israel have served as a great boost to the Jordanian economy, allowing for companies like Victoria Secret, Calvin Klein, and Champion to build factories in these zones. Syria could open up these QIZs and allow for more companies popular in America to engage in production in Syria, potentially lowering their overall costs in the US. With a new regime in Syria, US entrepreneurs could look for new business ventures in the country. Although foreign investment would be high risk at the beginning, it could potentially have high returns for the investors. If successful this would stimulate the Syrian economy, by pouring more money into the country, and the US economy by providing US investors with more money to spend domestically.

Trade with Syria would not only be beneficial in terms of the economy, but also politically. Opening trade with Syria would cause them to be less reliant on Iran, again, weakening Iran’s power in the region. An open Syrian economy would likely promote more democratic and capitalist ideals in the country.

The US should be interested in Syria for another reason: the cost of war. The US does not want, and cannot afford, to get involved in a long protracted war again in the Middle East. The removal of Assad is not as simple as the removal of Khaddafi in Libya. Assad is sitting on a chemical weapons arsenal that can be used against the citizens, or fall into the wrong hands. Because of this and the major possibility for destabilization in the region, given the strategic location of Syria, the US will ultimately find itself involved. To avoid this, the US must engage in diplomacy with the rebels and try to unify the group and work to strengthen the opposition. Too much US involvement in regime transition will not be welcomed, thus they must put pressure on the neighboring Arab states to step up and help bring stability to the region. If war continues to wage, and chemical weapons are used, the US will feel pressure from the international community to take military action. Given the budgetary cuts to defense and the debt crisis, in addition to the potential of military action against North Korea, another war is the last thing on American’s agenda.

The world cannot stand to see another quagmire; another failed state. Diplomacy and open communication will go a lot further than unsuccessful sanctions and total inaction in the region. It will also prove more successful than eventual military intervention once the conflict is too far gone. We must urge our leaders to do the right thing.  Syria matters.

Student Accomplishments: 2013 Presidential Management Fellowship Finalists

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We are proud to announce three Seton Hall University finalists for the Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF), Class of 2013: (1) Dalal Nadir, (2) Paige Fetzer, and (3) David Tucker. All three finalists are students of the Whitehead School of Diplomacy, exemplifying the School’s consistency to preparing quality graduate students.


Overall, this year there were 663 finalists from a competitive national pool of 12,000+ applicants.

‘Bearing the Presidential moniker, the PMF Program is a flagship leadership development program at the entry level for advanced degree candidates. It was created more than three decades ago by Executive Order and has gone through many changes over the years. The Program attracts and selects the best candidates possible, but is really designed with a more narrow focus – developing a cadre of potential government leaders. It provides some sustenance during the first years of employment and encourages development of leadership capabilities. The PMF Program inculcates a lasting bond as well as a spirit of public service, ultimately encouraging and leading to a career in the government.’

Learn more about PMF by visiting the official website here.

Internship Highlight: PolicyMic

tweetAn undergraduate student at the Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations with a minor in Asian studies, Areej Elahi Siddiqui is a current student intern with PolicyMic, an online media platform. Her articles have been features on their website and most recently on a popular blogger’s site, Michelle Malkin, who has almost half a million followers on Twitter.

When she’s not writing articles for PolicyMic, you can find her slumped in a chair at her local coffee shop writing either YA fiction or articles for her university newspaper, the Whitehead Envoy.

Student Publications: UNA-USA’s The Interdependent

ID Two Diplomacy students, Laurel Stone and James Welsh were recently featured in The Interdependent. The Interdependent is an online news magazine, produced by the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) that keeps UNA-USA members and the public at-large in touch with the inner-workings of the United Nations.

Both articles were published as part of UNA-USA’s International Women’s Day coverage, and can be found here:

http://www.theinterdependent.com/women-and-children/article/women-and-the-hiv-aids-fight
(Author: James Welsh)

http://theinterdependent.com/contributors/article/the-need-for-women-in-post-conflict-peace-processes
(Author: Laurel Stone)

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