Green helps Ginsberg on State Department assignment

Suppose you are a college senior, focusing on a major that promises an exciting career. Your school responsibilities include working as an assistant to a professor who has strong ties to the U.S. Department of State. 

One day the professor receives an invitation to Washington, D.C., to brief an ambassador-designate just prior to her confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate. The professor, who has fulfilled similar requests in the past, says yes and then asks you, his student assistant, to join him on this task.

The meeting with the ambassador is directly after Thanksgiving, just before the end of your fall semester - probably your busiest time of the year. What would you say?

For government major Dominic Green '12, the question is a no-brainer. He gave an enthusiastic "yes" to government Professor Roy H. Ginsberg. The pair went to Washington Nov. 29 to brief Ambassador-designate to Malta Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, a career Foreign Service officer and counter-terrorism expert, who has served in U.S. missions in the Middle East, including Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Representatives from the State Department, and national intelligence and other foreign policy agencies also attended.

This was Green's first trip to Washington on business, an "exciting" opportunity that gave him "a feel for what it might be like to work in the State Department or elsewhere in the federal government. Working in D.C is definitely on my future career radar," he said.

Meeting the ambassador-designate was the culmination of several very busy days, as Green and Ginsberg scoured all available sources for information on Malta, its relationship with the U.S., and how its strategic location and alliances influence the U.S. Ginsberg, who also holds the title of Jean Monnet Chair for European Integration at Skidmore, drafted a tightly written summary and analysis of key foreign policy and security issues over the Thanksgiving break. Said Green, "My role mainly involved responding to his emailed queries as quickly and thoroughly as I could." The team would have found the task impossible were it not for "Scribner Library's extensive online research databases," Green noted.

Said Ginsberg, "I like to see students take what they learn and use it; it empowers them to see what they can do as the result of hardscrabble study and analysis. Dom capitalized on his research, editing, and analytical skills to help me prepare for the briefing. In the world outside the classroom, there are times when one may be asked to turn around a briefing in a matter of days, sometimes hours. Dom proved he had the intellectual capacity and physical stamina to meet the challenge. It was a pleasure to work with him in preparing and delivering the briefing - he was a great help."

The professor continued, "My intent was not just for Dom to help me with the briefing but for him to experience government decision-making in action. The briefing helped prepare the Ambassador-Designate for her Senate confirmation hearing - so Dom got to see how the State Department works and the important issues involved in the separation of powers and checks and balances between the Executive and Legislative branches."

The State Department briefing was one of several high points for Green this fall. Earlier in the fall he helped Ginsberg organize a workshop conference involving a group of international scholars on the political, economic, and security concerns of the European Union. In addition, Green and two other Skidmore students attended a three-day foreign affairs conference at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Said Green, "The field of IR is a relatively new interest for me, and I think the fact that I have already had several incredible IR experiences shows how Skidmore makes it possible for students to pursue their academic endeavors beyond the classroom."

Green, who hails from Cooperstown, N.Y., became interested in IR and government issues after taking an introductory course with Professor Bob Turner in his first year. "I realized that understanding the way politics shape the world is vital to understanding what I read in the news. I figured I should keep taking government courses and eventually decided they were consistently my favorite classes. Also, every professor I have had in the government department has gone above and beyond my expectations," he explained.

He is happy, he said, "to be at a school where I can further my education across many disciplines. I have enjoyed taking music classes, and even dance and swimming classes as I pursue my government major. Last semester, I was also lucky enough to study urbanization on four different continents with the International Honors Program."

Green continued, "I can't say how grateful I am to student at an institution that values and stresses creative thought across all its academic departments. I can't honestly say I remember what I expected out of the academic experience before coming to Skidmore, but I can confidently state that what I have found here is better than anything I could have imagined. Just today I walked from a lecture on the Beatles to a French cultural conversation course to a class on Middle Eastern politics. Pretty cool if you ask me."

Although he still has one semester to complete, Green is looking ahead to his post-Skidmore life. "I hope to continue playing music with my band Slim Charles, as I pursue a career in international relations, either at a think tank, a political magazine or journal, or perhaps even in the U.S. government.