“There’s nothing more rewarding than choosing a career in public service,” says Ambassador Susan E. Rice, National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama. I honestly agree with that sentiment; and I am sure many of you do, too. Ambassador Rice made the comment in a promotional video for The White House last week. The video encourages Americans to consider careers in public service, specifically in national security and international affairs.

Here’s an excerpt from her accompanying letter:

If you care about the world and want to help shape a better future for us all, there is nothing more rewarding than choosing a career in public service.  You can directly contribute to keeping our country strong and safe. 

As a public servant, every day brings new and different challenges.  The work is hard, but nothing is more gratifying than knowing you’ve made a difference in the world–that you’ve helped make someone’s life just a little bit better. 

Read the rest here.

While Ambassador Rice addresses Americans in the video and letter, the call to serve may be applied to anyone interested in working in public service. Speaking of public service (*cough, cough*), SIPA can definitely help you fulfill that goal, as our degree programs offer courses in development, foreign policy and security policy, which are all taught by leaders in their respective fields. Among the MIA and MPA degree programs, students focus their education in one of six degree concentrations (or majors): Economic and Political Development; Energy and Environment; Human Rights & Humanitarian Policy; International Finance and Economic Policy; International Security Policy; or Urban and Social Policy.

Upon graduation, our Seeple implement what they learned in the classroom in the next steps of their careers. More than 87 percent and 89 percent of MIA and MPA graduates, respectively, were employed upon graduation in 2014, the latest data available. In the public sector, they found jobs working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Indonesia, Japan, and Singapore, the French Army, Hawaii State Legislature, Department of Justice, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, U.S. Department of Defense, European Central Bank, United Nations Children’s Fund, World Bank Group, and the list just goes on an on.

That’s why it’s a challenge to respond when someone asks me what type of jobs are available to our graduates. As this snippet of an employer list suggests, the opportunities are all across the globe (and in every job sector!). So even if you don’t think public service is the right career path for you, you can feel confident knowing that if you work hard you can earn the post-grad job of your dreams. It’s cheesy, I know, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

Where do you hope to end up after SIPA? Tell me about your career plans in your application of admission, which is due on Feb. 5, 2016. I look forward to reading all about it.

[Featured photo courtesy of IREX, Flickr | (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Presidential Summit for the Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders. Conversation w/ National Security Advisor Ambassador Susan Rice Introduction by Fellow Laura Golakeh on July 30, 2014.]