Jen!
You didn't know she was up for an award, you say? Then allow me to start at the beginning.
As you all probably know by now, Jen's primary responsibility here is doing labor diplomacy - interfacing with labor unions, manufacturers, and the Cambodian government among others. She loves this, and is very, very good at it. We've mentioned before how she has several times gotten people out of jail, prevented illegal strikes, and just generally prevented a collapse of the Cambodian economy. These are all Good Things, I think we'd all agree.
As it turns out, the State Department agrees. Every year they present one Foreign Service Officer the "Excellence in Labor Diplomacy" award. In order to be considered for this, the FSO's post needs to send in a nomination. Around the time nominations were due this past time, people at Main State called Jen to suggest that she get her nomination in, and that if it was a little late it would be no problem. Jen hadn't been thinking of nominating herself, but the DCM was very supportive of the nomination and took a rough draft from Jen and did amazing things with it. Everybody at post signed off on it and sent the thing in.
Well, a month or so ago Jen started getting hints from these people at Main State that they appreciated all she has done, and they would be showing her how much sometime soon. This past week they did just that, and announced that she is the new Labor Officer of the Year!
It perhaps isn't clear from this just how big a deal this is, so I'll expand a bit. This award will be presented by Sec. Rice herself, in mid October, and Jen will very likely be flown back to DC for just this event. She will also be presented with $10,000 as an additional little thank-you.
Finally, in case you still don't think she's about the best FSO there ever was, we are pretty certain that she's one of the most junior people to get this award, given that it was based on the work she did in her first year of her second tour. I've been saying things like "rising star" to her for years, but now maybe she'll believe me.
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7 comments:
We've known for a long time that we had a special child on our hands - ever since she insisted on sawing that 2x4 in half as a three year old in preschool. Shooting stars can go in alot of directions. We're so proud that Jen has gone in the direction of helping people and making the world a better place. Way to go, Jen!
Love,
Your proud parents
Go Jen!!!!
Woohoo! Congrats! That is most definitely awesome.
Way to go!!!
We are very happy for you. It sounds like you are really doing great things.
Congratulations
Alex, Charmagne, Isabel and (in two weeks) Dante
Phenominal! Congrats, Jen. We always knew you are a winner!
Love, Beth
Yay! It's always nice when someone else recognizes how wonderful WE already knew you are--congrats Jen :-).
Way to go, Jen! Very impressive, indeed.
Dad
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