Caption: Graduate student Constance V. Baroudos, left, shakes hands with Greece’s President Karolos Papoulias.Download Photo
Seeing Through Barbed Wire
Student Gets Close Up Lesson on Mediterranean Politics
Peering through the barbed wire barrier, Constance V. Baroudos broke down.
The graduate student cried as she stood outside the fenced off Famagusta, known as the dead or ghost city on the east coast of Cyprus. She was picturing what it must have been like when the town was taken over during the 1974 Turkish invasion.
Caption: Constance V. Baroudos in Cyprus.Download Photo
“I saw abandoned buildings and property that once belonged to Greek Cypriots,” Baroudos said, recalling her recent trip to Cyprus as part of Cal State Fullerton’s DC internship program.
“I could see a bombed hotel and empty homes. I imagined myself as a Greek Cypriot arriving home from work and having no place to sleep or bathe, and no way of obtaining any valuables, coming home and finding my family completely gone and being a refugee in my own country,” she said.
The experience, she added, “was one of those things that you can hear or read about, but must see with your own eyes to truly understand.”
Cyprus has been divided into Greek and Turkish Cypriot sectors since 1974, when a coup by Greek Cypriots led to the Turkish invasion.
For Baroudos, her internship with the American Hellenic Institute, a nonprofit Greek American public policy center in Washington, D.C., led to her recent journey to Cyprus and Greece as part of AHI’s third annual foreign policy trip.
Caption: Constance V. Baroudos witnessed a number of peaceful protests, including this one in Athens. Photo by Constance V. BaroudosDownload Photo
The 25-year-old Greek American graduate student called the internship “phenomenal.”
Besides visiting Cyprus, where she met with policy makers and learned about the country’s issues of concern, Baroudos also visited Greece, where she met with President Karolos Papoulias.
She also witnessed anti-government protests in Syntagma (Constitution) Square in Athens, the capital of Greece, which is suffering from a massive economic crisis.
“It hurts me to see my home country suffer through such a crisis,” Baroudos said, adding that the daily demonstrations heightened her awareness of the political climate and the problems that need to be addressed.
In addition to witnessing history in the making, Baroudos visited the ELIAMEP think tank, where she got a briefing from a former Greek Ambassador to the U.S. and a Greek professor; she was featured in several Greek newspapers, including Eleftherotypia and on TV news programs that documented her meeting with President Papoulias; visited with U.S. Ambassador Daniel Bennett Smith at his home; met diplomats at the Greek Foreign Ministry; toured various historic sites; and met with members of parliament.
Baroudos, who lives in Rancho Cucamonga, is completing her master’s degree in political science next month. She said she plans to pursue a doctoral degree in the future, but plans to spend the next few years working in Washington, D.C.
“I have various interests, such as becoming a lobbying or political analyst, policy analyst, State Department professional or diplomat,” she said, adding that her internship motivated her to envision herself living and working on the east coast.
“My DC internship experience has been one I will remember for the rest of my life,” Baroudos said. “It has allowed me to live and get to know a new place and political culture. It gave me the motivation and opportunity to pursue the internship abroad that has allowed me to experience and learn about foreign policy issues and give back to my cultural community.”
Like Baroudos, other students who have taken part in the DC internship program have landed jobs on Capitol Hill or pursued graduate degrees and careers in politics.
“Now in its sixth year, Cal State Fullerton’s Washington DC Scholars Program continues to provide a valuable educational and career development experience for our students,” said Stephen J. Stambough, associate professor of political science and director of the DC internship program.
Including this year’s interns, a total of 181 students have participated in the program.
“Every time I go back to Washington, D.C., I am thrilled to reconnect with a growing number of former students who are working in interesting careers related to their college experience,” Stambough said.
“Their successes have made it possible to connect Titans of all ages in the greater D.C. area to produce even more opportunities for future students,” he added. “This is exactly what we wanted to happen when we started the program, and being a part of it has been one of the most rewarding and fun aspects of being part of Cal State Fullerton.”
Caption: This fence blocks people from Famagusta in Cyprus. Photo by Constance V. BaroudosDownload Photo
July 19, 2011
Major: MPA grad student, expects to graduate in 2013
