As we virtually host the Foundation’s 8th Annual Graduate Fellowship Conference this week, we wanted to provide an inside look at some of the opening remarks from our 2019 Conference, a momentous gathering which marked the 10th anniversary of the Fellowship Program. The remarks below were delivered by an alumnus who was among the inaugural class of Graduate Fellows back in 2009-2010. We are delighted to share this Fellow’s personal reflections on being a part of this unique community of public service-oriented scholars and practitioners for now more than a decade.
"I wanted to provide just a few remarks to open the day from the perspective of someone who has seen the ground floor of this Fellowship. New Fellows, you might be wondering what it is you’re getting into and how you can benefit from this Fellowship moving forward. Let me first tell you a bit about my own experience ten years ago, as a broke college graduate with a degree in political science, like many people in D.C. I was a part of a number of fellowships, scholarships, think-tanks and internships, but one day I got a tap on my shoulder from a professor at Johns Hopkins University-SAIS, who would introduce me to the Rumsfeld Foundation – I had never heard of it. Of course, I was thrilled to get a scholarship. But at the time, it was just me and a few other Fellowship recipients. And as I look out on this group gathered today, what I see, as the fruition of a genuine scholarship and fellowship, is an impressive achievement.
So, to the new Fellows, my advice would be − take advantage of the wealth and breadth of experience in this room. Use this Conference as an opportunity to get to know one another and make the most of it. Find potential mentors, fellow travelers, and most of all – friends. To the older Fellows − be the help to them that you once received. Connect yourself or introduce yourself to someone else on their behalf and follow up next week or next month to discuss other opportunities and experiences that you’ve had. Take the time to learn from the leaders who are here as speakers, but also the other Fellows and Advisers, and carry these relationships forward over the years and take advantage of this unique and like-minded community.
So, where we’ve come in ten years from my perspective. As I said, I was initially thrilled to receive a scholarship, but now I am thrilled to see a Fellowship bloom from that. There are 146 Fellows and 24 Advisers in our network and 75% or more of Fellows are working in public service. This Fellowship has developed character and aspiration within us, and within our careers on the two poles of public service and leadership. Networking in Washington, D.C. is so often about advancing yourself, but I think what is so wonderful about the Rumsfeld Network is the opportunity it gives to help advance each other. Let me share with you two stories that illustrate this.
In 2016 on the way to the Spring Retreat in St. Michael’s at the Rumsfeld’s house, I hitched a ride with another former Fellow and got to know him over the course of this two-hour car ride. I learned about his unique passion for applying the just war tradition to current soldiers and warfighters today. He had spent a decade plus in Europe doing many things, which included holding ethics seminars onsite at Nazi concentration camps. His doctoral dissertation was about how soldiers can love their enemies even in warfare, as a way to protect themselves from the most penetrating and debilitating forms of PTSD and mental and spiritual trauma. His passion sparked my own interest in this – and suddenly I found myself working with another Fellowship that was working with newly commissioned officers and running them through an intense course of study before their deployment. I reached out to this Fellow to get him in front of these newly commissioned officers, helping him advance his own passion and interest to a broader audience. At those meetings, they heard him talk about his passion and developing the character and virtues for developing resilience on the battlefield and at dinner they continued to question him, clearly hungry for his ideas and his message.
The second story I can tell you highlights another way how this network has benefited me and can benefit you. I just completed in May a one-year certificate program at a local university, which I had not heard of until coming into this network. Interacting with another former Fellow, who is a former Marine Intelligence Officer, I was informed about his high regard for the institution and program where he had studied. Then, I heard that the president of this institution was an Adviser to the Rumsfeld Fellowship Program and, in fact, he was conducting one of the Conference breakout sessions where he discussed his concept of teaching all the arts of statecraft integrated into national strategy and how statesman are like conductors in front of an orchestra. It captured my imagination: I had never heard that before. Afterward, I started running into graduates of this university all over the city it seemed like and they were so impressive that I eventually decided to go there myself.
So, what makes this program special in my opinion is ultimately the attention this network places on the fundamentals of democracy, public service and leadership. America depends on citizens who give up their time for a season or maybe a lifetime, ending more lucrative and private sector jobs, to work for the public good. Citizenship demands leadership, taking ownership of a piece of the public life to make the bit of the common good that you can reach just a little bit better. And none of the successes of the Rumsfeld Foundation were a foregone conclusion. Like the successes of the American Republic, it requires people to step up and do the work necessary to serve a cause greater than themselves. The point of liberty is public service: contributing to the welfare of others, the structures and institutions of our common life together. So, consider this Fellowship a formation in the virtues of citizenship: participating in a little platoon of society that aims towards the common good.
To close, here is how you can live up to the goals and aspirations that the Rumsfelds’ have for this program – and I want to challenge us all to think about how we can think about success for another ten years − by mentoring and relying on each other for professional growth, giving a leg up to those earlier in their careers or younger than you. And, if you make a habit of doing that, I think that one day you will look up and realize that you have become a leader, by practicing leadership in the service of others. And if that becomes a habit of your life and that becomes a habit of my life, then we will have become formed into people worthy of passing on the blessings of liberty to the next generation. Thank you."
To learn more about the program and the talented leaders that comprise its growing network, please visit the Foundation’s Graduate Fellowship page.