Jerica Ward, Master of International Affairs, 2015, is one of twenty students from around the nation chosen as a Thomas R. Pickering Fellow for 2014-15. Ward is the first Bush School student at Texas A&M University to be selected for the program, which is designed to attract outstanding individuals interested in a Foreign Service career with the US Department of State. The program is a collaboration between the US Department of State and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Fellows can receive up to $37,000 annually to help cover the costs of their graduate education and also receive mentoring and professional development as they prepare to enter the Foreign Service.
Ward graduated from Cedarville University in Ohio, with a major in international studies and a minor in Spanish and Bible. As an undergraduate, she won a number of awards in the Model United Nations and forensic speech competitions. After graduation, Jerica worked in the Dominican Republic and then as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. For two years, she worked as a high school and university English/Spanish teacher, started a successful library project, set up environmental service projects, and worked as a trainer for USAID and a United Nations HIV/Aids initiative.
Dean Ryan Crocker said that having a Pickering Fellow at the Bush School is yet another indication of the School’s academic prestige and the quality of the student body.
“Pickering Fellowships are highly sought after by students interested in the Foreign Service, and I congratulate Jerica on being selected for this prestigious award,” Crocker said. “The Foreign Service is a rewarding and challenging career, and we need young people like Jerica to serve our nation.”
