Foreign service officer Mark Ward spoke Wednesday to a group of
students about what it takes to pursue a career in international
diplomacy ““ first starting with table manners.
“When you join the foreign service, you’re a
diplomat, and table manners are important,” Ward cautioned as
students in attendance helped themselves to pizza provided at the
event.
“So I’ll just be watching to see which of you are
slobs,” he added jokingly to appreciative laughter from the
crowd of about 40 students.
Ward speaks from experience. He is a 20-year veteran of the
United States Agency for International Development, the foreign aid
division of the federal government.
He has served in such countries as Egypt and Russia, and
recently was awarded the International Affairs Medal for his work
on relief efforts for the 2004 tsunami and the 2005 earthquake in
South Asia.
According to its Web site, USAID “has always had the
twofold purpose of furthering America’s foreign policy
interests in expanding democracy and free markets while improving
the lives of the citizens of the developing world.”
Josh Mukhopadhyay, a law and public policy student, said
Ward’s presentation was more accessible than other foreign
service talks he had attended.
“This one sounded interesting and it was. I was really
interested in (Ward’s) disaster work,” he said.
“This was much more laid-back than other (events) I’ve
been to.”
Ward joined USAID at the age of 31, after graduating from Boalt
Hall law school at UC Berkeley and working at a law firm in
Washington, D.C. for four years.
He emphasized to the audience of mostly law students that they
should gain relevant work experience before pursuing a career with
USAID.
“We need graduate degrees and experience,” he said.
“We’re not too picky about what you’ve studied.
We just want you to get that degree and then go out and do
something with it.”
Ward put his law degree and experience to use immediately when
he joined the agency.
For 10 years, he served as a regional legal adviser to agency
officials around the world.
“We put lawyers overseas,” he said. “Because
it’s so far away from the United States … we put legal
advisers in the field to give advice about federal (transactions
and activities).”
Ward was one of 25 or 30 regional legal advisers worldwide, and
worked in Egypt, Pakistan, the Philippines and Russia before being
promoted to mission director.
He said his time spent overseas has often exposed him to
anti-U.S. sentiment, but that he takes it as an opportunity to
discuss policy openly.
“I think it’s important for (people) to talk to me
about that,” he said. “And I learn things from hearing
their views. … It’s part of the job.”
But Ward added that other parts of the job can be even more
challenging.
“At some point in your career, and I would advise early,
you will probably have to serve in a dangerous country,” he
said.
Ward, for his part, returned to Pakistan after Sept. 11, 2001 to
reopen aid offices. Because Pakistan was classified as a highly
dangerous country, he was not permitted to bring his wife and sons
with him for the year-long assignment.
“When officers join the foreign service they raise their
right hands and promise that they’ll go wherever
they’re needed,” he said. “But that was a tough
decision. I didn’t go anywhere without guys with
guns.”