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Don Terpstra, UCLA’s diplomat-in-residence who served in Chile, meets with a student in his

Don Terpstra, a U.S. foreign service officer, served in Chile at the end of Augusto Pinochet’s regime and worked as a U.S. diplomat in Panama when the Panama Canal and Zone reverted back to Panamanian control.

But his final appointment serving as a diplomat-in-residence at UCLA, Terpstra said, has been an equally rewarding experience.

Terpstra, for the past two years, has been on campus counseling students about careers relating to foreign affairs and guiding students through the Foreign Service exam – a test offered annually, addressing a broad range of subjects including the social sciences and liberal arts.

Every year, the U.S. State Department assigns about 16 senior foreign service officers to appointments as diplomat-in-residence at various university and college campuses across the nation.

These diplomats, who have served for many years in the foreign service, conduct recruitment efforts for the State Department at their home campuses and throughout the surrounding region.

Terpstra, the fourth diplomat-in-residence to serve at UCLA in recent years and one of 17 to serve on campuses throughout the nation this past year, will complete his second and final year on campus this July.

“This has been a very great experience for me because I am very optimistic when I see the quality of young people,” he said. “Students are incredibly civic-minded and motivated to public service, it seems to me.”

The State Department, in determining at which universities to place diplomats, considers the ethnic make-up of the student population, the location of the campus in the targeted region, and the university’s commitment to preparing students for careers in public service and international relations.

The diverse composition of the student population at UCLA and the university’s credentials in international affairs, Terpstra said, are some of the reasons that UCLA was selected to host a diplomat-in-residence for the Southern California region.

The State Department, he said, is dedicated to forming a foreign service that is representative of the population of the United States.

“We would like to see minorities represented in the same numbers that they are represented in the population as a whole,” he said.

Diplomats-in-residence are at campuses with diverse student populations to inform minority students of available careers representing the United States abroad, he added.

The quality of UCLA’s faculty and academic and research programs and the diversity of the campus are factors that also attract other visiting faculty members and influential figures, said Nga Scott, the administrative director of international programs at the School of Public Affairs.

Next year UCLA will again host a diplomat-in-residence. Robert Wang, a diplomat who served at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, is expected to arrive at UCLA in September.

During the past two years Terpstra has represented the State Department at Career Fairs and Information sessions and delivered guest lectures at UCLA and at other campuses throughout Southern California.

One of the exciting parts of the appointment, Terpstra said, is sparking an interest in students who previously had not considered a position in the foreign service, but approached him at career fairs or other public gatherings.

“To be able to give them a whole new concept and ... open a new door for them is a lot of fun,” he said.

The only requirement to becoming a diplomat, Terpstra said, is being a U.S. citizen.

He stresses that while receiving high education is helpful, particular degrees are not required.

In addition, Terpstra has focused his efforts on meeting with students one-on-one to discuss the professional and real-life aspects of working abroad.

It was in such individual sessions that Michael Katz, a fourth-year political science student, met Terpstra in order to learn how to get involved in the foreign service and prepare for the foreign service exam.

But Katz said Terpstra became more than just a resource useful in learning more about the foreign service.

Terpstra also advised him on other academic programs and careers in related fields.

“I always remember him as being very hospitable and open to all sorts of questions,” he said. “I am glad he has been there in the last two years professionally and as a friend.”

While Terpstra does recruit particularly for the State Department, he said he also discusses with students international careers available at other government agencies.

As a diplomat-in-residence Terpstra also represents the State Department at community functions and visits military bases to recruit those seeking career changes to the foreign service or other government professions.

But Terpstra advised students specifically when helping them complete applications for domestic and foreign internships offered by the State Department.

Nell Triplett, a UCLA graduate, said that Terpstra’s help undoubtedly strengthened her application. Triplett was a former copy editor with the Daily Bruin.

Triplett completed a summer internship last summer at the State Department’s Foreign Institute in Washington D.C., an experience which she said enabled her to consider a future career in diplomacy.

This summer, Anny Vu, a fourth-year international development studies and political science student, will also complete an internship at the State Department.

Vu is one of three UCLA students awarded Pickering Fellowships by the State Department.

Students selected as Pickering Fellows receive full funding for the last two years of their undergraduate education and the first year of their graduate education in return for a commitment to four years of service to the State Department.

Terpstra influenced her career choices, she said, in encouraging her to take positions at hazard posts – positions abroad considered potentially dangerous – where, being smaller centers, Vu has a greater chance of engaging in pertinent work.

Terpstra has served in Peru and Bolivia when these countries cooperated with the United States in efforts to eradicate illegal drugs.

In addition, while serving as the director of the Chile-U.S. Cultural Center in Chile at the end of the Pinochet regime he was in the culture center building when it was bombed.

Despite these experiences, Terpstra said he never felt personally threatened.

As a diplomat-in-residence, Terpstra said, he has tried to convey to students the daily activities that working as a diplomat entails.

“Being able to put a human face on (diplomatic work) is what diplomat-in-residences are all about,” he said.

Terpstra, who is affiliated with the UCLA School of Public Affairs, also counseled two graduate students last year as a senior fellow for the UCLA School of Public Affairs.

The goal of the Senior Fellows Program is to convey to graduate students the real world work involved in careers relating to public policy by establishing mentorships with professionals in the community.