2013 Summer Reading

The beginning of the 2013-2014 school year saw major changes come to the IR Fellows program.  Our student body more than doubled in size with the addition of six ’17s.  This growth was made manageable by the increasing support provided to the group by Mr. McMahon and by the increasing leadership role taken on by the IRFs themselves.

The year began with a group discussion among the ’17s, and other interested Middle School students, of their summer reading: George Kennan’s classic study of American Diplomacy.  (As their summer reading the ’16s kept up with their subscriptions to the journal Foreign Affairs.)

Foreign Affairs Discussions

The “bread and butter” intellectual work of both cohorts of Fellows remained our student-led discussions of articles from Foreign Affairs.  Each discussion typically begins with a brief background presentation by the day’s student discussion facilitator.  He or she provides the group with basic information about the experiences and previously-expressed views of the author so that we can all place his or her argument within its proper context.  The group usually then attempts to articulate succinctly the author’s main point.  More context for the wider framework of foreign policy debates the author is addressing is provided as necessary by the discussion facilitator, Dr. Rezelman, and/or Mr. McMahon.  Once Fellows understand the argument, they are then invited to express their opinions on the author’s argument and, with any luck, a, well, argument ensues.  One of our goals is to learn the art of disagreeing without being disagreeable.  This, along with “don’t take yourself too seriously, but take what you do very seriously,” is only one of the many “Official IR Fellows Slogans.”

Sometimes the complexities of the issue require a bit of a more formal presentation from Dr. Rezelman or Mr. McMahon.  We try to avoid formal lecture as much as possible, and for the most part we succeed.  Our guiding discussion principle is embodied by what has become known as The Sophie Rule: “only one person speaks at a time.”  Dubbed the “discussion ninja,” by acclamation Sophie is considered by the group the best discussion leader.  She has also taken on the role of, when (frequently) necessary, making sure Dr. Rezelman doesn’t end up dominating the conversation,  (It should be noted it was at least Dr. Rezelman who had the good sense to assign to Sophie this role.)

The Creation of the Leadership “Cone” System

At the initiative of Thomas Ferguson (’16), in the early winter the IR Fellows program made its most important administrative and leadership advance to date: the creation of the “cone” system.  Borrowing the “cone” terminology used within the State Department, the IRF ’16s decided to divide themselves into five leadership categories in order to take on a greater leadership role within the program.  Though Thomas created the initial cone organization, once the ’16s decided who should assume which role, each Fellow played a vital role in further defining what his or her responsibilities should be.  The results:

• Administration and Leadership: Thomas Ferguson (’16);
  • the “Admin Officer” administers and adjusts as necessary the cone system, assigning specific tasks to each student and monitoring their progress;
  • the “Admin Officer” also takes the lead in organizing IRF participation in leadership exercises;
• External Relations: Hannah Wheaton (’16);
  • the “External Relations” officer coordinates IRF interactions outside of the NA community;
  • examples of such duties include maintaining the blog and communicating with and about related external organizations such as the World Affairs Council;
• Internal Relations: Pablo Vazquez (’16);
  • the “Internal Relations Officer” coordinates IRF interactions with other components of the CCGL and within the wider NA community;
  • examples of such duties include arranging for joint meetings with other Fellows groups on subjects of mutual interest (e.g. a discussion of Ebola with the Global Health Fellows) and arranging for IRFs to visit the classrooms of younger NA students;
• Scheduling: Sophie Kidd (’16);
  • the “Scheduling Officer” selects the times and locations of IRF meetings and sets the agendas for each meeting; and
• Special Projects: Jessica Williams (’16);
  • the “Special Projects Officer” takes on large, long-term projects, as directed by the Administration and Leadership Officer in conjunction with the faculty leadership of the IRF program;
  • examples of early “special projects” have included so far supervising the creation of a student-driven admissions presentation and assisting in preparing for the World Affairs Council’s fall “WorldQuest” competition.

Jessica Williams (’16) Teaches Ancient History

On December 2nd Jessica Williams (’16) taught Carl Boland’s Eighth Grade Ancient History class.  Having just completed a unit on ancient Egypt, Mr. Boland expressed an interest in possibly having an IR Fellow visit his classroom to teach a class on contemporary political events in Egypt.  Jessica immediately jumped on the opportunity and ran with it.  As Mr. Boland later remarked, “Jessica was brilliant.  She was organized, prepared, articulate, intellectual, and the overall quality of her presentation was far beyond her years.  I was deeply moved by the whole experience, not only by Jessica‘s stellar performance, but also by the captivating effect her presence and instruction had on the students.”

As a result of Jessica’s hard work, the IR Fellows plan to substantially expand our intra-NA educational outreach role in coming years.  It is also interesting to note how many students cited their having been present for Jessica’s class as a reason why they chose a few months later to apply to the IR Fellows program.