Students at Shaker High School in Colonie had the opportunity to learn about careers in foreign affairs Wednesday. As WAMC’s Southern Adirondack Bureau Chief Lucas Willard reports, the 12th grade students learned about the U.S. State Department and the country’s relationship with South Korea.
As part of their senior year class on international relations, students at Shaker High School attended a panel discussion organized by the International Center of the Capital Region.
The ICCR hosted a series of events in partnership with the Korean Economic Institute.
Mark Tokola is a retired State Department employee and vice president of the institute.
“This is part of a program we do around the United States called The Future of Korea. So we bring somebody from the State Department, somebody from the Korean Embassy to be able to go out and talk to communities. I think it’s important to be outside of Washington D.C. It’s a big country. It’s not just all in Washington,” said Tokola.
During the discussion, Chang Woo Lee, Public Affairs Officer of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, spoke with students who asked about the country’s high-tech economy and its relationship with the U.S.
“They have [a] really good focus of what’s going on in Korea, especially they appreciate the value of South Korean business in [the] U.S. economy, too. So, I tried to explain a lot to how we also contribute to the U.S. economy and how the U.S. economy contributes to our economy,” said Lee.
David Anthony Rodriguez, Political-Military Officer in the State Department’s Office of Korean Affairs, answered questions not just about the U.S.’s long alliance with South Korea, but also about how students can seek an international career.
“I think a lot of times, students across the United States, they honestly don’t know that a lot of programs exist, and a lot of programs that help recruit folks into careers in foreign affairs. And it’s like me and my colleagues talked about, foreign affairs is not just the U.S. Department of State, there’s international organizations kids can work in. There are other U.S. government agencies as well as NGOs. So, I think the more we can expose the kids to different programs that exist, the better position they’ll be in to make great career decisions going forward,” said Rodriguez.
Following the hour-long discussion, several students stayed late to ask more questions.
“So, when I came into this program, like this class, I’ve learned a lot more and I’m just realizing, like, how much more things come into play for us every day and how it basically affects us as a whole in this country.”
“I think coming into this class I didn’t expect so much to learn about like what we could do in the future to impact overseas.”
“I was interested in, like, the field, like, learning the careers about foreign policy and all that stuff…how to get into this type of opportunities.”
“I was really just here…I like foreign policy a lot and my South Korean info on that was a little limited so I just took that as an opportunity to learn about that.”
“I thought it was, like, a really amazing opportunity as well. I think for me, especially, this is kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to kind of introduce myself to State I.T. jobs, computer science jobs.”
“Like, I was really excited for the opportunity to talk to people who had lots of expertise on this subjects, because a lot of times when you hear about these subjects its…you’re hearing it from people who have the same perspective. So to hear from different perspectives, people who have had these experiences…it was really interesting.”
That was 12th-graders Dorca Laplante, Ishrar Eusha, Greg Connors, Zain Majid, Josh Blake, and Joshua Mooney.
The students’ foreign policy teacher, Andrea Stepp, said a key goal of the course is to get students to see themselves as part of a complicated world.
“Whether that’s a voter, whether that’s doing business globally, whether that’s serving foreign affairs in some way, again, I would say this panel discussion helped bring all of that to a head,” said Stepp.
The Korean Economic Institute has seen success in engaging students. I asked Tokola if he’s seen students interested in a foreign relations career stay involved.
“I actually have. And more than one. Sometimes they’ve gotten back in touch with us and said ‘Thank you for having made that available to us,’ so…I’m always proud when that happens. It’s great,” said Tokola.
The Korean Economic Institute and International Center of the Capital Region’s schedule of events also included a discussion with local high-tech industry leaders and program with students at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy.
