New York Lawmaker Praises Secretary's Commitment to Diversity.

It was a Thursday in August and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on a stopover in Washington during a busy schedule of international diplomatic travel. Congressman Charles Rangel had just returned to the U.S. from a visit to South America where he had met with President Alan Garcia to negotiate the final details of a free trade agreement with Peru.

Here, in the Treaty Room of the State Department, the Secretary and the Congressman had taken time out from their international duties to meet with a group of 20 students, including members of the latest graduating class of the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program. They would soon take their own places in the international arena as members of the U.S. Foreign Service.

Secretary Rice and Congressman Rangel were in festive moods as they praised the young people's academic accomplishments and commitment to serve as representatives of the U.S. overseas. The Secretary assured them that they would have careers full of challenge and opportunity while doing essential work promoting U.S. interests around the world.

Congressman Rangel described the program as a "breakthrough in the effort to make the representation of our country overseas look like America." He added later, "I can't commend Secretary Rice enough for her support of this initiative and her commitment to diversity in the nation's diplomatic corps."

Participants in the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program, the students are part of a larger coterie who have either completed, or are near completion, of subsidized graduate studies in a program designed to enhance diversity in the Foreign Service.

The results are impressive: thirteen Rangel Fellows are already serving in the Foreign Service--10 in U.S. embassies overseas, including postings in Mexico, Germany, Panama, and Burkina Faso, and international hotspots such as Vietnam, Yemen and Burma. Three others are in training awaiting their first assignments.

Six more Fellows will be sworn in as Foreign Service officers in September, bringing the total to nineteen by the end of the year. Twenty-two Rangel Fellows are currently in graduate programs at universities across the country and will enter the Foreign Service in 2008 and 2009.

The so-called Rangel program is a cooperative initiative among the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Congress, and the Ralph J. Bunche International Center at Howard University, which administers the program. Entering its fifth year, the program can point to significant success in promoting the involvement of members of minority groups in international affairs in a rigorous program of academic study, internships in the U.S. and overseas, as well as tutelage under professionals in the State Department and non-governmental organizations.

"I remember visiting embassies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America thirty years ago and not seeing a single American in the embassy who looked anything like the people we were trying to impress in those countries," Congressman Rangel said. "You would have thought America was a country where everybody was a member of the Harvard elite. These young people are going to make a difference in changing that impression for everybody."

The Fellows, selected in a highly competitive nationwide competition, are provided up to $28,000 per year to support their work toward master's degrees in international affairs. Of the 41 students currently in the program or who have successfully completed it, 88 percent are from minority groups, including African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Hispanics. Twelve percent are Caucasians. Seventy-one percent are female.

Most are from backgrounds of significant financial need. Chansonette Hall, attending graduate school at the University of Pittsburgh, is the child of missionaries and grew up in West Africa. Leah Martin, attending the University of Denver, is a Sicilian-American from Louisiana who left home while in high school to pursue her education on her own, often by working full-time jobs. Kanika Mak, a Cambodian-American, became the first Rangel Fellow employed as a State Department Foreign Service officer. Mak's family fled the communist regime in Cambodia and settled in the U.S.

"The Foreign Service is the best kept secret in Washington," Congressman Rangel said. "I can't think of a better way for a young person to serve their country while pursuing a highly respected and exciting career."

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