Preparing Trojans for Careers in Foreign Service

Peter Winter, BA '08 and MPD '10 is a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. He credits his time with CPD for launching his career in public diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State.

"In 2006, I was a CPD summer intern and worked at the first ever Summer Institute in Public Diplomacy. It was chatting with a group of international diplomats attending the session that cemented my interest in pursuing a career in PD. I later enrolled in USC's Master of Public Diplomacy program where I studied U.S.-China relations and nation branding. After graduation, I went to the 2010 Shanghai World Expo as the director of the USA Pavilion's Student Ambassadors program where I saw first-hand how the public diplomacy I had studied in the classroom played out in real time at an important global event. It was around that time that I began the process of becoming a Foreign Service Officer (FSO), studying for and ultimately passing the FSO Test. The opportunities that USC and CPD provided me in working at the forefront of public diplomacy not only helped me build valuable professional relationships in the field, but are ultimately what made me a compelling candidate for the Foreign Service."

Stories like Peter's are why CPD remains committed to providing hands-on learning opportunities for students at USC. But like many other academic institutions this year, CPD has been forced to make difficult decisions about where to invest our limited resources for greatest impact. That's why we are relying on the generous support of our community to ensure that we may continue to provide impactful experiences for aspiring public diplomacy professionals. 

Your gift to CPD this year will go directly to enriching the academic experience for students at USC so that we can continue to build a pipeline of highly qualified professionals ready to tackle today's global challenges.

Peter's story first appeared in CPD's 2019-2020 Annual Report.