This past summer, junior Spanish major and global studies minor Tyler Mergen was a part of the U.S. Foreign Service Internship Program with the Department of State. There, Mergen and her fellow interns learned about foreign policy and foreign affairs, attended press briefings, and visited embassies.

My name is Tyler Mergen. The program I’m participating in is two years long, so we spent this past summer in civil service in Washington, D.C., and will go overseas to a U.S. embassy or consulate for our second summer in 2025. I will bid on my overseas post and take the Foreign Service Officer Test this October. Bidding is something all foreign service officers have to do when they are getting ready to go to a new post about every two to three years. This process involves ranking the available choices and writing explanations for their first and last choices.

This is a picture of my 33 cohort mates on our first day. We are all rising juniors and seniors, and we worked in different bureaus and offices. I chose to work in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) because of my background in Spanish language and Latin American studies as well as my interest in narcotic trafficking and border security. Within INL I worked in the Office of Global Programs and Policy, where we monitored other countries’ narcotic policy and distributed funding from Congress to try to influence these policies.

On our very first day we got sworn in by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It was crazy! This auditorium was filled with my cohort of 33 and the 300 or so other student interns that worked at the State Department last summer.

This mural is at one of the entrances to the main State Department building and was commissioned during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency to help employ artists during the Great Depression. This work of art depicts the five rights outlined in the first article of the Bill of Rights, and I especially like this piece of art and its placement because as federal employees it is our job to protect the Constitution. This is a really great reminder of what I worked towards in the office every day.

One of the best parts of my job was that I got to attend so many different events every day, like this press briefing. These briefings happen every afternoon Monday through Friday and are televised for the public to view. On this particular day the press was being briefed about Blinken’s upcoming trip to Asia, so they talked about which countries he would be visiting, who he would be meeting with and the diplomatic relationships the State Department would be trying to improve on.

After the press briefing we were able to take pictures at the podium (even though I’m not much taller than it!). I wasn’t able to take many pictures in general, especially in my office for security reasons. I spent most of my days working on my team’s biggest project, the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats. Blinken launched this initiative in July 2023, so we celebrated its first anniversary. Every month we hosted 14 hours of Zoom meetings with government officials from countries all over the world and representatives from international organizations. We talked about narcotic policy and how we can improve this crisis, especially with the rising threat of fentanyl. We currently have 158 countries participating, so coordinating the coalition was a lot of work.

Another event I really enjoyed was visiting the Institute of Peace. It was established by Congress in 1984 as a nonpartisan independent organization working towards the mitigation of deadly conflict abroad. I especially enjoyed my visit here because it shows how our work at the State Department in conjunction with the Institute of Peace aims to improve U.S. diplomatic relations and tries to make our world a safer and more cordial place for people of all nationalities.

The State Department has a diplomacy museum that is open to the public, and one of my favorite pieces is this fragment of the Berlin Wall. To me it shows what can end up happening when we trust that diplomacy takes time and we persevere through the days when it feels like we haven’t accomplished much. The Berlin Wall was up for 28 years, but eventually it was able to fall through numerous countries working together to reunite Germany. 

This is a piece of art I saw when I visited the Japanese embassy. I especially like this painting because it depicts a beautiful landscape in Japan, and it reminds me of how much there is out in the world to see. When we travel not only do we get to see beautiful landscapes, but we also get to interact with people from different cultures and create a mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries. Even this simple exchange is an example of diplomacy.

At the end of the Japanese embassy tour we had a mixer with some of the embassy staff. This was especially interesting because we got to talk to Japanese diplomats about their work and what it takes to become a diplomat in their country, which is very different from the process in the U.S.

This is my official Department of State headshot! Since I can’t take many pictures in general I always get excited to have a good photo opportunity. I really enjoyed my work with the State Department this summer because being a public servant and influencing public policy, in my case through the Global Coalition, means that I am directly serving my country. I am very excited to continue my internship overseas next summer as a U.S. diplomat.