Rachelly Buzzi ’22 Named Pickering Fellow

International relations major Rachelly Buzzi ’22 was named a 2022 Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellow. She was one of only 45 recipients chosen from hundreds of applicants from around the nation.

Funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by the Washington Center, the Pickering Fellowship awards recipients receive two years of financial support, mentoring and professional development to prepare them for a career in the Foreign Service. Fellows will also complete a domestic internship at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., and an overseas internship at a U.S. embassy.

Buzzi is motivated to pursue a master’s degree in international affairs and a career in the Foreign Service partly because of her own family history. “My diverse family background—my parents immigrated from Puerto Rico and Cuba and my grandparents came from Syria, Spain and Italy—has given me insight into international perspectives and an appreciation for cultural adaptability,” she says. “I am committed to pursuing a career in the Foreign Service because its mission aligns with my values of service and global understanding as well as with my academic interests.”

Buzzi was a Posse Scholar, a Downey Scholar with the Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence and an SU Invest in Success Scholar. As an international relations

Buzzi

major, she completed a topic concentration in intercultural communication and a geographic region concentration in Latin America and the Caribbean. She minored in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises at the Whitman School.

Buzzi participated in the University’s Maxwellin-Washington Program and took classes at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on international policy and global humanitarian and security issues. She also interned with the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute. “This internship allowed me to enhance my knowledge of the department and its impact, and to be part of a team focused on research and the Heroes of U.S. Diplomacy initiative,” she says.

This past summer, Buzzi was selected as a fellow with the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Additionally, Buzzi has participated in the University CAS-Maxwell Model United Nations delegation since spring 2020, representing countries as diverse as Venezuela, China, Japan and most recently, Kenya. In spring 2021, she served as co-head of the delegation and was responsible for preparing the other delegates for the conference by leading them through public speaking exercises and reviewing and editing drafts of position papers.