SIA to supplement funding for prestigious international affairs fellowships

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State School of International Affairs is pleased to announce a new policy to support and empower leading students of international affairs.

SIA will supplement funds, up to the level of full tuition and living expenses for two years, provided by three of the United States' most prestigious international affairs graduate fellowships: the Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship and Charles B. Rangel Graduate Fellowship programs administered by the U.S. State Department, and the Donald M. Payne International Development Graduate Fellowship Program administered by the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID).

“We are excited to offer these generous resources to the recipients of these competitive fellowships, who represent our nation’s best and brightest and the future of international affairs,” said SIA Director Scott Gartner. “Being able to support these outstanding students will help SIA further their academic and professional success, and affirms our commitment to preparing exceptional students to make a positive difference in the world.”

In addition, this new policy also supports SIA’s commitment to diversity, as both the Rangel and Payne fellowships are awarded to members of minority groups historically underrepresented in the critically important fields of international diplomacy and development.

The Pickering and Rangel fellowships support students who plan on entering the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service to represent American interests abroad, while the Rangel fellowship supports students who plan to pursue careers in international development with USAID. Given these fellowships’ connections to leading agencies in the field of international affairs, SIA’s commitment to these fellows also reflects an ongoing commitment to student’s professional development, reflected in the program’s career success rate of over 95 percent for SIA graduates.

SIA’s policy to supplement Pickering Fellowship recipients coincides with a visit to campus from the fellowship’s namesake, former U.S. Ambassador Thomas J. Pickering, who will deliver a public lecture on the United States’ contentious relationship with Russia and lead the school’s annual diplomatic simulation co-hosted by the Army War College on October 13. Pickering is one of the most-highly decorated career diplomats in recent history, having served over more than forty years in the U.S. Foreign Service as ambassador to Russia, India, the United Nations, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, and Jordan over the course of four decades. He also served as the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 1997 to 200, and holds the rank Career Ambassador—the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service.