After graduating with his BA in Political Science from Benedictine College in Kansas this past May, Joe Humphrey started preparing for his career in national security and international affairs.
He enrolled in IWP’s master’s degree program in Statecraft and National Security Affairs, and he took an internship with the Senate Republican Policy Committee. After studying abroad in England during high school and learning about other nations’ perspectives on the US after traveling to Spain and Israel, he was excited to jump start his career in international affairs.
At the Senate Republican Policy Committee, Joe worked at the front office, attended hearings, and provided a summary and analysis for one of the analysts at the committee. He found that some of the concepts the classes he had started taking at IWP were helpful at his internship, especially when he became involved in the approval process of Michael McFaul for the post of the U.S. ambassador to Russia.
After McFaul was nominated, he answered written and verbal questions for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which approved him before the decision was brought before the entire Senate. Joe was tasked with analyzing his background, career, and writings, and helped formulate questions that the Senators of the Foreign Relations Committee might want to ask him. Joe recalls that the terms, theories, and concepts of realism and idealism he was covering in Dr. Lenczowski’s international relations course were helpful to him during this process.
Joe expects the IWP education to be helpful in ways like this throughout his future career. His specialization at IWP is Intelligence, and he hopes to become an intelligence officer for the Navy, or work at an executive agency in some capacity. In the future, Joe will consider being involved on politics, and possibly running for office. Initially drawn to IWP because of its foundation in ethical reasoning and its emphasis on America ‘s founding fathers, Joe says that, “IWP will provide me with a stronger foundation for what I believe, why I believe it, and the basis for these core convictions in moral reasoning and in the ideas of our nation’s founders.”
This spring semester, Joe is especially looking forward to his studies in General Jajko’s military strategy class, which, he anticipates, will prepare him further for service with the Navy.