Dreaming of the Foreign Service
En route to achieving her State Department dreams, political science graduate student Emily Baker lands a job in the U.S. Senate
Emily Baker is the kind of person who likes to always have a plan for her life, setting goals many years in advance with specific steps to take and boxes to check to get there. When she enrolled in Portland Community College as a freshman, her initial plan was to go into engineering and serve in the Navy. She had been an achiever throughout high school, earning solid grades, participating in the Rotary Club’s youth leadership program, and even learning Mandarin during a 10-month exchange program in Taiwan. Pursuing a challenging technical career and serving her country just felt like the logical next step in her master plan for success. That was before she discovered political science.
After taking several history courses Baker began to realize that she was more fascinated with international relations than with numbers and technical formulae. She loved learning about World War II, John F. Kennedy, and Soviet Russia, but she didn’t know how to apply her newfound interests to a specific profession or goal.
“I took an intro to political science course taught by this super animated professor,” Baker said. “That class changed my whole life. It helped me put all the pieces together. I sat down and asked myself, ‘What do I want out of all these very different things?’ I realized that I liked the Navy because I wanted to serve my country but also see the world, and I liked history and politics because I thought international relations was interesting. So, I started to wonder: ‘Is there a job out there where I can do it all?’”
That’s when she learned about the foreign service.
Foreign Service Officers are diplomats with the U.S. State Department, representing the interests of the United States and American citizens in embassies and consulates across the globe. Becoming a foreign service officer is tough, with applicants filtered out through a notoriously difficult test, multiple stages of interviews, and an extensive background check. Despite the challenge, Baker was sure that she had found her purpose. She was determined to become a foreign service officer, no matter how long it took.
From PCC, Baker transferred to Portland State University to finish her undergraduate degree. She earned a double major in political science and international development, focusing on Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and learning Russian along the way. When she graduated, Baker took a short-term job with the state legislature as a session committee assistant and drew up the next steps in her plan.
“I decided I would start by getting some work experience, go back to school and get my master’s degree, and then dedicate more energy to studying for the foreign service exam,” she said.
Thus far, Baker’s plan is well on track. She spent two years working for the City of Durham, then enrolled in PSU’s MS in Political Science program in 2020. Over the past two years, she has immersed herself in high level coursework on Russian politics, international relations, election systems, and more. The experience has only deepened and solidified her love for the discipline.
“A big plus of PSU’s political science master’s program is that, because the cohorts of graduate students are so small, you are able to actually get to know the professors,” she said. “You get to see that they’re not just reading their lectures off of a lesson plan. This is their life. They really enjoy political science and they’re good at teaching it.”
During her second year, as part of the requirements for the program’s “professional track,” Baker applied for and participated in several internships, including a research internship with the U.S. State Department and another for the office of Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer. Those internships opened doors, and in the early months of 2022 Baker was offered a full-time job as Staff and Press Assistant for the office of U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon. With only her thesis defense remaining (a task that can be accomplished remotely), Emily is now moving to Washington D.C. to kick off her career in the world of politics.
It's a great opportunity, and one that the PSU master’s program helped her reach. She plans on staying in D.C. for a while, learning all she can, gaining additional experience, and continuing to study for the foreign service officer test.
“If you look at any blog talking about the foreign service, everyone says, ‘You don’t plan on joining the foreign service, you just make it your goal,” Baker said. “It’s still my long-term goal, but I’m hoping that in the meantime I can [do some good work] with Merkley’s office and eventually move towards the policy side of things.”
In other words, the dream is not dead. Baker’s life plan to join the august ranks of the U.S. State Department stands strong. She’s worked in government at the city, state, and now federal level. One day, she’ll take her political expertise international. For now, master’s degree in hand, she’ll continue to learn, to grow, and to thrive in the real world of politics.