Local resident Esther Tetruashvily wins fellowship to work in the U.S. Foreign Service

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Esther Tetruashvily, 2011 TCNJ Alumna

EWING, NJ (05/07/2012)(readMedia)-- Esther Tetruashvily '11 is going to be joining the ranks of the U.S. Foreign Service.

This is because she recently accepted The Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship, which was awarded to her by the U.S. Department of State last week. The fellowship secures her a minimum three years of post-graduate work with the government – as well as $40,000 for graduate study and two summer internships, the first with U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. and the second, overseas.

This award is just the icing on the cake for Tetruashvily, who is currently finishing her Fulbright Fellowship teaching English in Azerbaijan and will go to Harvard University this fall.

The recent graduate has also been honored with two other fellowships in the past year.

Her graduate program at Harvard, in Russian & East European Studies, will be free thanks to her recent reception of both a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (which provides her with not just with the cost of full tuition and fees but also a $15,000 stipend) and Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, which is providing her with $90,000.

According to Tetruashvily, after three years with the U.S. Foreign Service, it will be up to her to decide if she would like to continue her service.

According to the website of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which funds the Pickering Program, the program is designed "to develop a source of trained men and women who will represent the ... needs of the Department and who are dedicated to representing America's interests abroad."

"(The Pickering Fellowship) is an incredible opportunity to learn about State Department and Foreign Service work first hand and of course, because it has been a dream of mine for some time," said Tetruashvily in an email. "The decision to accept was a difficult one because as all Foreign Service commitments, I would have to be away from family and friends for three years and possibly more, if I chose to stay on. Ultimately, I knew that my family and friends would be supportive."

After winning the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship, Tetruashvily said that one of her long-term goals was to become a leading regional specialist on issues of migration and trafficking in Europe and Eurasia with the U.S. State Department.

She also voiced interest in continuing her current work as an intern with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and looking into work as a regional expert and project development consultant with organizations like The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Whatever path she chooses, she will have many opportunities and paths open to her after her service, including the option of getting her Ph.D., according to her former professors.

Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Benjamin Rifkin, who supervised Tetruashvily's independent studies in Russian in her last year at the College, said that he would not be surprised if she became the next "secretary of state someday, following in the footsteps of Madeline Albright, Condoleeza Rice, and Hillary Clinton."

Tetruashvily's self-professed "mentor and friend" Jo-Ann Gross, professor of history and Central Asian studies and supervisor of the Central Eurasian Middle East Studies Society – a student club that Tetruashvily founded at the College, said that wherever Tetruashvily ends up in the future, she is excited to "watch her develop along the way."

"Whatever she does, she will do it with grace, enthusiasm, and dedication... To have so many doors opening at once, so many unbelievable opportunities, so much promise for the future – speaks to the incredible person Esther is," said Gross, who taught Tetruashvily in four courses, including a 2010 Maymester study-tour of the Central Eurasian region.

Gross also worked with her on two faculty research projects, the second of which involved the study of labor migrants and trafficking with the IOM in Moscow. The abroad research experience was made possible by a Phi Kappa Phi "Student-Faculty Research Award" that Tetruashvily won in fall 2009, and it served as the basis for her recently-published senior thesis "When Migrant Means Slave: Social and Legal Perspectives on the Trafficking and Exploitation of Labor Migrants from Tajikistan in the Russian Federation," which won the "Best Research Award for a Thesis in International Studies," said Gross.

According to Tetruashvily, after she was informed of her Pickering Fellowship, Gross was "the first person (she) called" after her family.

"(Professor Gross) has been relentless in her encouragement and support for me. If it were not for her, I may not have discovered this entire region or this part of myself and maybe might not have even applied for the Fulbright. She really has been a champion for my intellectual and career development, and I always tell her, all of this would be impossible without her," said Tetruashvily in an email.

Rifkin noted that Tetruashvily's faculty relationships are as much a source of pride for the school as her acomplishments.

"At TCNJ we celebrate (Esther's) accomplishments as examples of what our students can do with the close faculty mentoring we provide our students. This is what makes our college special and I encourage all our students to follow Esther's footsteps and embrace the opportunities we provide," said Rifkin.