[372] MTSU STUDENT LEARNS ART OF DIPLOMACY AT STATE DEPARTMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 18, 2009
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081

MTSU STUDENT LEARNS ART OF DIPLOMACY AT STATE DEPARTMENT
D.C. Internship Provides World of Experience for International Relations Major

(MURFREESBORO) – The French statesman Talleyrand said, “A diplomat who says ‘yes’ means ‘maybe,’ a diplomat who says ‘maybe’ means ‘no,’ and a diplomat who says ‘no’ is no diplomat.” But when MTSU student Hannah Brooks received an opportunity for an internship with the U.S. State Department, she immediately said ‘yes,’ and she did not mean ‘maybe.’
In the waning days of Condoleezza Rice’s tenure as Secretary of State, Brooks spent her fall 2008 semester at the agency’s Office of Nordic and Baltic Affairs in Washington, D.C., a logical assignment for someone who had studied in Denmark one year earlier.
“I was in charge of communicating with the embassies and the consulates in our different countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) and knowing our foreign policy in accordance with those countries,” Brooks says. “When we had visitors, I would escort the visitors. I would sit in meetings and take notes, and I would have to write up those notes and send them off to higher up people in the State Department.”
Applying her personal knowledge of Scandinavia to her internship was intriguing for Brooks, even though the region is hardly a diplomatic trouble spot for the U.S. Why not request placement with, for example, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, which includes Israel, Iran and Iraq?
“It was really interesting to see how a successful relationship works, how countries that are friends with one another and do successfully work together actually accomplish goals,” Brooks says. “I suppose that if I were at the Russia desk during the Russia-Georgia crisis, I would have had to stay Saturday and Sunday and work many long hours.”
Besides, Brooks, an international relations major from Nashville with minors in history and global studies, learned so much just by being in the international arena, her education was hardly limited by her geographical assignment.
“By being able to sit in on meetings, I was able to hear a lot about what was going on in the Middle East, what was going on in Africa, what was going on all across the world,” Brooks says. “As an intern, you can sometimes be forgotten, which is a good thing almost because you can just sit there, and you can just soak in what is going on.”
This 13-week assignment was made possible through the Washington Center, described as “an independent, nonprofit organization serving hundreds of colleges and

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universities by providing selected students challenging opportunities to work and learn in Washington, D.C., for academic credit” on its Web site, www.twc.edu.
Gaining entry to this unique environment was both easier and harder than one might think. Brooks says the requirements were to be in college, be an American citizen, have a GPA above 3.0 and write a couple of essays. Meeting those criteria was relatively simple. The hard part was passing the exhaustive post-9/11 vetting process, even for someone with Brooks’ pristine record.
“You have many questions to answer,” Brooks says. “For example, I am a dual citizen with Brazil. They had to make sure that I didn’t own property in Brazil and I didn’t pay taxes in Brazil. It took many months to get my security clearance.”
That dual citizenship, which resulted from her father being born in Brazil, will come in handy after Brooks’ graduation in May. This summer, she is scheduled to work at a small U.S. consulate in the South American nation. From there, it’s on to Ulsan, South Korea, where she will teach English for a year to help pay off her loans. After that, Brooks says she’ll head for graduate school. It’s her only uncertain destination for the foreseeable future. She hasn’t selected a college yet.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For color jpegs of Hannah Brooks in Washington, D.C., contact Gina Logue in the MTSU Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081 or gklogue@mtsu.edu.