Don Terpstra, a U.S. foreign service officer, served in Chile at
the end of Augusto Pinochet’s regime and worked as a U.S.
diplomat in Panama when the Panama Canal and Zone reverted back to
Panamanian control.
But his final appointment serving as a diplomat-in-residence at
UCLA, Terpstra said, has been an equally rewarding experience.
Terpstra, for the past two years, has been on campus counseling
students about careers relating to foreign affairs and guiding
students through the Foreign Service exam ““ a test offered
annually, addressing a broad range of subjects including the social
sciences and liberal arts.
Every year, the U.S. State Department assigns about 16 senior
foreign service officers to appointments as diplomat-in-residence
at various university and college campuses across the nation.
These diplomats, who have served for many years in the foreign
service, conduct recruitment efforts for the State Department at
their home campuses and throughout the surrounding region.
Terpstra, the fourth diplomat-in-residence to serve at UCLA in
recent years and one of 17 to serve on campuses throughout the
nation this past year, will complete his second and final year on
campus this July.
“This has been a very great experience for me because I am
very optimistic when I see the quality of young people,” he
said. “Students are incredibly civic-minded and motivated to
public service, it seems to me.”
The State Department, in determining at which universities to
place diplomats, considers the ethnic make-up of the student
population, the location of the campus in the targeted region, and
the university’s commitment to preparing students for careers
in public service and international relations.
The diverse composition of the student population at UCLA and
the university’s credentials in international affairs,
Terpstra said, are some of the reasons that UCLA was selected to
host a diplomat-in-residence for the Southern California
region.
The State Department, he said, is dedicated to forming a foreign
service that is representative of the population of the United
States.
“We would like to see minorities represented in the same
numbers that they are represented in the population as a
whole,” he said.
Diplomats-in-residence are at campuses with diverse student
populations to inform minority students of available careers
representing the United States abroad, he added.
The quality of UCLA’s faculty and academic and research
programs and the diversity of the campus are factors that also
attract other visiting faculty members and influential figures,
said Nga Scott, the administrative director of international
programs at the School of Public Affairs.
Next year UCLA will again host a diplomat-in-residence. Robert
Wang, a diplomat who served at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, is
expected to arrive at UCLA in September.
During the past two years Terpstra has represented the State
Department at Career Fairs and Information sessions and delivered
guest lectures at UCLA and at other campuses throughout Southern
California.
One of the exciting parts of the appointment, Terpstra said, is
sparking an interest in students who previously had not considered
a position in the foreign service, but approached him at career
fairs or other public gatherings.
“To be able to give them a whole new concept and … open
a new door for them is a lot of fun,” he said.
The only requirement to becoming a diplomat, Terpstra said, is
being a U.S. citizen.
He stresses that while receiving high education is helpful,
particular degrees are not required.
In addition, Terpstra has focused his efforts on meeting with
students one-on-one to discuss the professional and real-life
aspects of working abroad.
It was in such individual sessions that Michael Katz, a
fourth-year political science student, met Terpstra in order to
learn how to get involved in the foreign service and prepare for
the foreign service exam.
But Katz said Terpstra became more than just a resource useful
in learning more about the foreign service.
Terpstra also advised him on other academic programs and careers
in related fields.
“I always remember him as being very hospitable and open
to all sorts of questions,” he said. “I am glad he has
been there in the last two years professionally and as a
friend.”
While Terpstra does recruit particularly for the State
Department, he said he also discusses with students international
careers available at other government agencies.
As a diplomat-in-residence Terpstra also represents the State
Department at community functions and visits military bases to
recruit those seeking career changes to the foreign service or
other government professions.
But Terpstra advised students specifically when helping them
complete applications for domestic and foreign internships offered
by the State Department.
Nell Triplett, a UCLA graduate, said that Terpstra’s help
undoubtedly strengthened her application. Triplett was a former
copy editor with the Daily Bruin.
Triplett completed a summer internship last summer at the State
Department’s Foreign Institute in Washington D.C., an
experience which she said enabled her to consider a future career
in diplomacy.
This summer, Anny Vu, a fourth-year international development
studies and political science student, will also complete an
internship at the State Department.
Vu is one of three UCLA students awarded Pickering Fellowships
by the State Department.
Students selected as Pickering Fellows receive full funding for
the last two years of their undergraduate education and the first
year of their graduate education in return for a commitment to four
years of service to the State Department.
Terpstra influenced her career choices, she said, in encouraging
her to take positions at hazard posts ““ positions abroad
considered potentially dangerous ““ where, being smaller
centers, Vu has a greater chance of engaging in pertinent work.
Terpstra has served in Peru and Bolivia when these countries
cooperated with the United States in efforts to eradicate illegal
drugs.
In addition, while serving as the director of the Chile-U.S.
Cultural Center in Chile at the end of the Pinochet regime he was
in the culture center building when it was bombed.
Despite these experiences, Terpstra said he never felt
personally threatened.
As a diplomat-in-residence, Terpstra said, he has tried to
convey to students the daily activities that working as a diplomat
entails.
“Being able to put a human face on (diplomatic work) is
what diplomat-in-residences are all about,” he said.
Terpstra, who is affiliated with the UCLA School of Public
Affairs, also counseled two graduate students last year as a senior
fellow for the UCLA School of Public Affairs.
The goal of the Senior Fellows Program is to convey to graduate
students the real world work involved in careers relating to public
policy by establishing mentorships with professionals in the
community.