ESIA – Elliott360

Payton Beaumier, who recently graduated from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, was awarded a 2023 Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship following a highly competitive nationwide contest.

The Pickering Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by Howard University, supports extraordinary individuals who want to pursue careers in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State. Beaumier was chosen out of 600 outstanding candidates.

Beaumier, who grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, said that since high school, she’s dreamed of having a career that would allow her to work towards advancing human rights on a global scale.

One of her teachers in high school once said, “What makes this country great is little people doing little acts of love.” Beaumier said it is a quote that continuously sticks with her and serves as a source of motivation to dedicate her life to public service.

After completing her graduate program, Payton will become a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. She hopes to serve as a political officer working to address matters of human security and strengthen U.S. relations with countries across the globe. Payton credits her time and experience at GW for setting her on this trajectory.

When Beaumier arrived at GW, she was searching for a way to turn her passions into a career, and GW provided an incomparable sense of direction and an environment for curiosity and growth. She stated, “I had amazing academic and experiential learning opportunities at GW. It is a wonderful place to jumpstart your interests.” Specifically, she expressed her gratitude for the unique courses she took, her engaging and influential professors, the Career Services Center, and her time as part of the Elliott School Dean’s Scholars Program.

While at GW, Payton served as the recruitment officer for the Delta Phi Epsilon Professional Foreign Service Sorority and was president of the Women in International Security Branch at GWU.

She participated in the U.S. Foreign Service Internship Program and interned with the Bureau of Counterterrorism at the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru, focusing on international narcotics and law enforcement affairs. She has completed internships at the White House with the Gender Policy Council, the U.S. Department of the Treasury with the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Payton became aware of her selection for the Pickering Fellowship during her time as an intern for the White House Gender Policy Council, and she aspires to continue advocating for gender equity and equality in foreign policy during her career.

This fellowship will allow Beaumier to pursue a two-year master’s degree in an area of relevance to the Foreign Service. It will also connect her to extensive professional development opportunities, including internships, mentors, and skills training.

As part of the program, Beaumier will work at the U.S. Department of State for their domestic internship, and the U.S. Department of State will send her overseas to intern in a U.S. Embassy or Consulate to get hands-on experience with U.S. foreign policy and the work of the Foreign Service.

“I am excited for the opportunity to dedicate my future and my career to promoting peace and supporting our citizens abroad while living a life of public service.”

In honor of Women’s History Month, we recently caught up with alumna Kateryna Pyatybratova, ESIA BA ’11, MA/MBA ’16, who has turned her experiences at the Elliott School and GW into a career promoting women’s leadership and public service around the world.

Tell us about what you are doing now and why it matters to you.

I currently serve as the director of marketing and business development at the GW Center for Excellence in Public Leadership. In this role, I am responsible for the Center’s go-to-market strategy and partnership-building efforts with U.S. and international government agencies and executive education partners.

In a place like Washington, if you ask someone to identify the number one reason that makes something succeed or fail, the answer inevitably comes down to “leadership.” Right here at GW, we help leaders achieve personal and professional breakthroughs and make a positive difference in their organizations and in the lives of the people they serve. Seeing the impact that we’re making here in DC, and around the world, is what energizes and inspires me to continue to do more.

March is Women’s History Month. How have you worked to promote women’s leadership and public service?

While at the Elliott School, I’ve been blessed to have a number of amazing mentors and friends (both women and men) who supported me in my own leadership journey. It is important to me personally to do the same for others. I called on my extended GW network time and again when I served as director for the Women’s Information Network Advisory Council, fundraised for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and when a fellow alumna and I started publishing the Women Inspire Action Magazine, telling authentic stories of women who turned their vision into a reality.

Most recently, my GW colleagues and I launched the Executive Women’s Leadership Program (EWLP)*, designed for high potential leaders who are looking to accelerate their impact, influence and career advancement. Because the program received such rave reviews from women leaders in DC and federal government agencies, we are now working to bring EWLP to international audiences through partnerships with the Elliott School’s Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs and GW’s Global Women’s Institute. Later in March, we will bring our empowering message to the 6th Annual Power of Collaboration Global Summit at the United Nations.

How did the Elliott School influence your professional choices and successes? Who helped you on your career path?

I wouldn’t be where I am today without my GW family. This university didn’t just give me a world-class education and a fulfilling career, but also life-long friendships and exposure to transformative ideas and experiences.

During my undergraduate years, I had the extraordinary opportunity to do research alongside top foreign policy scholars, such as Dr. Hope Harrison, study abroad at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow and Sciences-Po University in Paris, and volunteer at the Obama White House and AmeriCorps. Thanks to GW’s strategic location in the nation’s capital, by the time I completed my B.A., I had four years of job experience on my resume, having worked at the Peace Corps, the Woodrow Wilson Center, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Being a first-generation immigrant, none of this would have been possible for me without the help of a generous alumni scholarship that funded my first two years in college. I will always be grateful for that!

I especially want to recognize fellow alumnus Paul Maeser, MA ’14, who recommended me as a participant to a prestigious seminar in 2018 through the German Marshall Fund, opening a lot of new doors to partnerships in Germany, Brussels, and Ukraine. I also credit my program director, Dr. Peter Rollberg, who heads the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, for his wisdom and invaluable support throughout my four years in the joint M.A./M.B.A. program. Under his guidance, I was able to really tailor my graduate school experience to my specific professional goals and undertake hands-on research projects that added tremendously to my professional portfolio. One of the projects I did in Ukraine, which was sponsored by the William & Helen Petrach Grant, even evolved into a business opportunity!

What would you say to current Elliott School students who want to make a positive difference in the world?

I would reiterate a quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous 20th-century German theologian and anti-Nazi dissident, whose writings had a profound impact on my own life: “Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.”

*Note: The Executive Women’s Leadership Program is open to alumni, as well as non-GW women active in professional careers. The Spring Cohort will take place April 3-5, and there are still a few spaces available.

Tag: ESIA

Elliott Student was Awarded the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship

Alumna Promotes Women’s Leadership and Public Service