Clinton School student Zack Huffman’s International Public Service Project took him to Yerevan, Armenia, to work with the United States Department of State Embassy of Yerevan, Armenia. The state department’s mission is to create a more secure, democratic, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community.
Huffman’s work with the department included interagency research, writing and distributing diplomatic cables, serving as embassy representative on diplomatic functions and introducing program evaluation methods to the political and economic section of the embassy.
A graduate of the University of Mississippi, Huffman was the youngest elected school board member in Mississippi as an undergraduate.
What more can you say about the mission of the state department?
The state department aims to further the interests of the United States in Armenia. But it also acts as an intermediary with the current administration of the United States with its priorities and foreign policy, and also serves to provide humanitarian assistance to the country. Here in Armenia, what we see is that there has been a scale back in assistance, because we are switching over to what we call a trade-based alliance.
U.S. presence in Armenia started in 1998, after the Spitak earthquake, which devastated Armenia. We’ve been here for going on 26 years. We were here before Armenia declared its independence from the Soviet Union and over the 26 years have facilitated infrastructure projects, helped in preventing election fraud, human rights, and things like that.
We are kind of switching to a more trade-based relationship with Armenia right now. The same goals exist, but we are going about it in a different way. Armenia’s economy suffered in 2008 during the housing bubble that affected the world’s economy. But it has had steady GDP growth, so we are pulling away from the assistance and focusing more on what linkages and relationships we can make with US foreign investment into this country to achieve what we want, which is a liberalized economy which hopefully and eventually leads to a more proactive civil society. Those are kind of the basics of US policy here.
What were you specifically tasked with?
I assisted the mission in conducting research in a range of policy initiatives for the United States government. I was assigned to the political and economics section of the embassy. Basically, I provided research on diplomatic cables. I met with individuals and assessed certain areas.
What were your biggest personal and professional challenges?
I think the greatest challenge was the mind game I was playing with myself. I really had no idea what the state department was like as an organization, what the environment was, and what my role would be. There’s a lot of mystique with what foreign service officers do. Even when I was trying to get information for myself and for the professors at the Clinton School before I left, they really weren’t able to tell me all that much because of the firewall that is in the agency.
For me, going in and playing with that mind game of whether or not I was capable of doing the work was the biggest hurdle I had to overcome. I have to brag about this mission and the embassy – the employees here are incredible, some of the smartest people I’ve ever been in a room with, and they are really servants to the American public. I don’t think they get the credit they deserve.
As far as overcoming my inhibitions, basically it is such a fast-paced environment that you kind of just have to get in the stream and go. The first week I was there I was briefing the ambassador on one of the issues I was researching and, really quickly, I had to tell myself, “Okay, you’re an adult now. Let’s get this and go.”
How did you spend your personal time away from work?
It was kind of a 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. work schedule. I got a chance to explore a lot of the country, a lot of the touristy sites. But, I was able to have a lot of incredible one on one interactions. I was able to start taking violin lessons here, because the cost was so cheap. I also took Russian lessons. I spent a good amount of time with an Armenian family. We talked about the Soviet Union over crawfish and the various political dynamics between our two countries.
It is a beautiful country. The people are friendly, so I tried to take as much time as I could in getting to know my colleagues here at the US Embassy. But also getting to know the Armenians, who have a really strong relationship with the United States because of the diaspora in the northeast and in California. So that is how I spent my free time – immersing myself into the culture and their way of life.
Did this experience have any impact on your career goals?
Very much so. At first – and I think I have told everyone at the Clinton School this – going into this I was really not concerned with international relations or foreign affairs at all. I was an education policy guy who wanted to reform education policy in the south. That was just my experience and my background. Applying for the state department internship and getting it has totally turned me on to this career path. So when I get back to the United States, I plan to sit for the Foreign Service test in October and can definitely see myself embracing a career in Foreign Service, if I am lucky.
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