Foreign Service awards go to volunteers who ‘dream big, hope big, and inspire others

Meredith Somers, federalnewsradio.com; see also. 

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Craig Houston wanted to protect his newborn son. Grace Turner wanted to make sure she didn’t lose her nurse practitioner skills. Maritza Wilson just wanted to help.

While their motivations might stem from different sources, the benefit each of those people had on their communities was similarly powerful, and the reason why they are some of the 2017 winners of the Secretary of State Award for Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad (SOSA).

“Volunteer work is not a part of all cultures, and host countries’ nationals are often fascinated by the creativity and dedication of our community members who willingly contribute their time and energy,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Human Resources Constance Dierman. “Volunteer work constitutes a very effective form of personal and unofficial public diplomacy.”

Speaking earlier this month at the State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide President Joanna Athanasopoulos Owen, Ph.D, said the awards recognize “the most compelling volunteer efforts” made by Foreign Service employees and their family members.

More than 116 awards have been given out in the 27 years since the creation of the honor.

This year, 17 people were nominated, said Yolanda Macias-Cottrell, AAFSW SOSA chairwoman.

“The selection process was a difficult one because all of the nominees were impressive,” Macias-Cottrell said. “A key factor in selecting a winner is sustainability, and we believe the projects of this year’s awardees will continue over the long term reaching many local citizens and their communities.”

Sustainability is very important, but also hard to achieve in such a transient community, Athanasopoulos Owen explained. People start projects and then when their tour ends, they pack up, leave, and the project is dropped.

“What we’re trying to build now — and we have made a point out of it — is that we can connect people so that the next families that arrive can pick up on the same project and continue,” Athanasopoulos Owen said. “We think it’s very important to sustain it. Dream big, hope big, and inspire others to follow your steps, and manage to do some good volunteer work to advertise this essence of volunteerism that the American people have, which is rare compared to the rest of the countries.” ...