Diplomatic Maneuver
Jackson watched in awe as President Joe Biden, wearing his trademark aviators, and first lady Jill Biden welcomed Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his partner, Jodie Haydon. The two leaders then stepped up to a lectern to make remarks to the 4,000 attendees about the two countries’ enduring alliance.
“To hear the military band and get to see President Biden and the first lady was amazing because it was my first time ever going to the White House,” says Jackson, a rising senior double majoring in international studies and political science. “It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime memory.”
The White House visit came about through a paid, two-and-a-half-month internship she did at the U.S. Department of State last fall – the first CofC student to land the coveted opportunity.
Serving in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the Harry S. Truman Federal Building, Jackson supported State Department officers, from the assistant secretary to country desk officers. Many of her duties were press-related – media monitoring on different topics and drafting press guidance for the daily briefs – but she also escorted foreign dignitaries visiting the State Department.
“I learned so much,” she says. “Seeing diplomacy in action every single day was eye-opening. I didn’t realize all the different jobs and tracks there are. And I was treated like a full-fledged colleague, not just an intern.”
As a member of the International Scholars Program at the College – a joint initiative between the School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs and the Honors College – Jackson was well-prepared for the position.
“Syd is the epitome of our International Scholars,” says Albert Thibault, a retired foreign service officer who is her LCWA Advisory Board mentor. “At our first meeting, I immediately took note of her scholarly focus. Syd described her immersion in Chinese language study, not just at the College, but starting as a young girl in Rock Hill, S.C. How many can say that?”
When it came time to go to university, Jackson wasn’t interested in the College at first because she didn’t want to follow in her sister’s footsteps.
“We’ve gone to school together our whole lives,” says Jackson, whose sister Jennie Jackson ’23 is now in medical school at the University of South Carolina. “I wanted this to be my own adventure. But she assured me, ‘The International Studies Program here is really great.’”
A meeting with Bryan Ganaway, associate dean of the Honors College and director of its International Scholars Program, helped seal the deal, as did receiving four scholarships, including the Colonial and S.C. Fellows scholarships.
“I’m nothing but ecstatic about my decision,” she says. “My sister was right – it truly has been my own experience. And, honestly, I can’t see myself being anywhere else.”
Jackson and Thibault meet regularly at the campus Starbucks, and she made it clear early on of her ambition to become an international lawyer, foreign service officer and, ultimately, a U.S. ambassador.
“She does not think small,” says Thibault, who was the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassies in Nepal, Saudi Arabia and India, as well as the U.S. consul general in Lahore, Pakistan. “Her college courses, language study and research projects are part of a long-range strategy aimed at joining the State Department. More than many students, she has a very specific career goal and, equally important in my view, a strategy to achieve it.”
Her studies abroad in Vieques, Puerto Rico, and Chiang Mai, Thailand, were important steps in that process, as was the State Department internship, of course.
“Keeping in contact with her (during the internship), it became very clear to me that this was no résumé-dressing employment experience,” says Thibault. “Syd was very well-suited to do this, given her writing skills, grasp of policy, her global outlook, self-confidence and very positive personality – all of which are necessary for an effective diplomat representing our country. I have little doubt that Syd will achieve her ambition.”