Foreign Service officer and BYU alumnus Jefferson D. Smith will present "War on Terror: the Diplomatic Dance in East Africa and Tanzania" as part of the Global Focus Series on Wednesday, Oct. 6 at noon in 238 HRCB.
Smith was tenured as a Foreign Service officer in 2004 in the management "cone" (one of five Foreign Service specialties). In 2003, he was posted to his current station in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania as Economic and Commercial officer at the embassy.
A native of Houston, Smith had his first international experience at age 17, when his family moved to Spain for six months. "I had a wonderful, very informal education. I knew I wanted to live like that," he said.
As a result of his American Heritage class at BYU, he said, "I realized my deep belief in the Constitution and a love for the ideals of freedom and equality. I knew I wanted to work in law and government." He read about the Foreign Service as a career online. "It sounded like the dream job -traveling around the world, interacting with different cultures, changing jobs and homes every few years while enjoying the security of a tenured career," said Smith.
In September 2000, that dream job came to fruition for Smith, wife Stacey and their two children as they moved first to Arlington, Va., and then in 2001 to Kingston, Jamaica where he served as a vice consul in the Consular Section of the embassy.
Having returned from serving a mission in Germany, Smith received a bachelor's degree in international studies from the Kennedy Center in December 1999.
He speaks both German and Swahili.
This lecture will be archived online. For more information on Kennedy Center events, see the calendar and News and Events online at http://kennedy.byu.edu.
