The Diplomat Spring 2008 Vol.1

ΦΔΕ SPRING NEWSLETTER 2008年5月7日星期三

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Lauren Dankiewicz

I have witnessed Delta Phi Epsilon steadily develop in both professionalism and organizational structure since my initiation only one year ago. I am extremely proud to be a member of Delta Phi Epsilon; this semester has been the most rewarding yet. I hope that the

newsletter provides you with a fulfilling overview of the various events that took place during the Spring semester of 2008!

Table of Contents

Page 2 -Alumni Update

Page 3-Guest Speakers

Page 4-5-Members Abroad

Page 6-Pledge Class

Page 7-Pledge Class Event

Page 8-Graduating Seniors

Page 9-Closing Remarks-Thank You’s

0-Executive Committee

Brothers, Sisters, Alumni & Friends,

Greetings! Delta Phi Epsilon has had yet another successful semes-ter this Spring. In February, we initiated eight new brothers and sisters and tonight, they will be formally inducted as members of Delta Phi Epsilon, Epsi-lon Chapter. We hosted our semesterly full-day retreat at the interactive Ex-ploratorium in San Francisco, which fostered fraternity bonding amongst the pledges and actives. We worked hard in making our weekly meetings a meaningful and helpful place for our members to gain

access and further their interests in various international careers by host-ing guest speakers, such as Julianne Cartwright Traylor, a Board of Direc-tor for Human Rights Advocate, and George Scharffenberger, Executive Director of the Blum Center. Finally, we expanded our global knowledge of various cultures and locations by hosting internal socials varying from Japanese sushi night to Latin American salsa dancing. All in all, this semester has con-tinued in holding true to Delta Phi Epsilon’s mission: to provide a com-munity, space, and preparation for those interested in the Foreign Service or International Affairs. I am proud to say that to this day, Delta Phi Epsilon remains unique among hundreds of student organiza-tions at Cal— the only Co-Ed Profes-sional Foreign Service and Interna-tional Affairs Fraternity. I am excited to see where the incoming Executive Committee will lead us in the upcom-ing semesters!

Fraternally yours, Luong Chau President Epsilon Chapter Delta Phi Epsilon

LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY

Epsilon Chapter LETTER FROM OUR CHAPTER PRESIDENT, LUONG CHAU

Delta Phi Epsilon


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ALUMNI UPDATE Starting in November 2007, I began working at the National Bureau of Asian Research as a Project As-sociate. Thanks to an old DPE connec-tion (Winston Le, Class of 2005), I heard about the organization, and after an extensive interview process, moved up to Seattle. As a Project Associate, I am working on a public health conference, called the Pacific Health Summit. In my position, I am working on the logis-tical side, managing the database, or-ganizing invitations, and serving as the point person for the majority of the international delegates. It's a great job, but not something I'm planning on doing permanently. Given my interest in refugee

health policy and Middle Eastern foreign policy, I am looking to move to DC, New York, or back to the Bay

Area.

Greetings DPE members, Life after Berkeley is great! Not only am I back to speaking Spanish a good 90% of the time, but I am also spending some much needed quality time with old friends, family, and my bride-to-be. I love not hav-ing to worry about homework and pretending to stay awake during lecture, and as I have a lot more free time on my hands I have started cooking and experiment-ing with all kinds of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. However, things were a bit more turbulent at first. Job hunt-ing is hard and the interview process dreadful. I had heard horror stories from friends who spent a good six months looking for a job before finding one they were comfortable with. It was precisely because of this that I started look-ing for a job early in my last semes-ter, even though the 21-unit work-load offered little to no free time to

do so. Fortunately, by the time I graduated I had already secured an internship and a couple of inter-views. The internship was at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at USD, and it was a good experience for the short time I was there. However, due to some issues I had with the University Manage-

ment I decided to give up the part-time internship and to focus solely on my part-time job with Wells Fargo. I am currently getting every-thing organized to possibly get back on the job hunt. However, I am very content with how things are at the

moment and am enjoying every minute of my post-college life. Lastly I just want to say how lucky all of you are to belong to such an amazing organization. DPE was a crucial part of my college life as it will be in the years to come. Good job on another fantas-tic year.

Ciao!

LEILA MARTIN

President Emeritus, Spring 2007

Middle Eastern Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies

CLAUDIO MENESES

Spring 2007Political Science

An Unexpected Meeting...At Cal Day on April 12th, Alumnus Richard Kirby (‘59-’61) stopped by our

Delta Phi Epsilon booth!


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GUEST SPEAKERS

Ms. Julianne Cartwright Traylor

Mrs. Traylor is a Human Rights lawyer, and currently a chair of Amnesty International. She is also the founder of Human Rights Ad-vocates, and has been part of a delegation to the UN on the topic of womens' rights.

George T. Scharffenberger

Mr. Sharffenberger graduated from George-town University's School of Foreign Serv-ice, served as a Peace Corps community de-velopment agent in West Africa, and held senior executive positions in three interna-tional NGOs. He is now the executive direc-tor of the Blum Center for Developing Economies here at UC Berkeley.

Richard M. Buxbaum

Mr. Bauxbaum is a Jackson H. Ralston Pro-fessor of International Law. He publishes inthe fields of corporation law and comparative and international economic law, and since 1987 has been editor in chief of theAmerican Journal of Comparative Law.

Arjun Dicheva

Mr. Dicheva is a member of the GMO board and executive committee and is responsible for oversee-ing the team managing the GMO Emerging Mar-kets Strategy, the GMO Emerging Countries Strategy and the GMO Emerging Markets Quality Strategy. Prior to his affiliation with GMO in 1993, he spent 12 years at BARRA directing soft-ware development, marketing, client service, and emerging markets research and development. Mr. Divecha holds a Bachelor of Technology in Aero-nautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and an M.B.A. in Finance from Cornell University.


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DPE ABROAD

Sister La’Rita Anderson is currently studying in Buenos Aires on EAP, the UC Berkeley study abroad program. She will return after the spring and graduate the follow-ing year in the spring of 2009.

Sister Ingrid Budrovich has spent the last few months traveling to Bar-celona, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires, Florence, Amsterdam, and Egypt! She is currently studying Italian, and is returning to graduate in the spring of 2009

STEVEN CHENChina

National Security Education Program, David Boren Under-graduate Scholarship Recipient

We are almost completely immersed in Beijing. We live side-by-side with both over-80 grandparents and newly-wed couples. We chat as often as possible with our surrounding neighbor-hood (in a high-rise apartment complex), which includes elevator operators, service workers, night security watchmen, and street merchants, among many, many others. Outside our neighborhood, every trip on a cab turns into a review, interview, and learning session. Our very own small court-yard consistently has Beijing locals with ages ranging from infant to the elderly, and we observe and discuss life and formal topics with them.

From discussions with local residents (which are innumerable because they are unavoidable in a city where nearly no Chinese speaks English) we have learned about the huge “floating popu-lation” that live in Beijing, met numerous merchants and workers who migrated to the cities to find work (and subsequently found the work was long and had low pay) the hukou system where you are given an essential certificate according to which city you were born, the according law that only those possessing Beijing hukou can be drivers, the age discrimination in the workforce,


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Steven Chen...continued

the many cases of city sanitation workers being assaulted, and thereafter overlooked in the law sys-tem, and the nuanced differences between minority groups living in the city.

We learned firsthand the “4-2-1” (4 grandparents, 2 parents, 1 child) phenomenon that exists in the cities, we witnessed firsthand the embodiment of the 70% unemployment rate among college graduates in the city by observing a recruiting fair, heard about the black markets for diplomas, learning certificates, and even licenses, witnessed firsthand the fear and flight of street merchants from the generally known to be corrupt city police (chengguan, who actually were featured in re-cent international news for murdering a citizen). These topics were among, many, many other top-ics discussed with the Beijing populace. These topics were discussed entirely in Chinese, with helpful vocabulary learned from fairly modern textbooks from my program. There are little to no opportunities, on the whole, to speak English in Beijing (other than the foreigner cafes which we try to avoid), so there was ample opportunity to practice Chinese – addi-tionally, newly-learned Chinese. The most enjoyable aspects of adjusting to this culture is just the fact that we were able to communicate fully and with little hindrance topics that are fairly complex and that carry many cultural connotations. One of the more interesting aspects of learning about Chinese culture is discovering relics of its more socialist and communist past. I have in coming to China since learned that although “com-rade” is going out of fashion, Chinese still call their workplace their “unit” (danwei), their drivers and skilled workers “masters” (shifu), among many other interesting appellations. Their socialist past is even embodied in their behavior. If oneday a “fried pancake” (jianbing) vendor’s husband is sick, making the stand short one worker, each customer will man the “spinner” and help make their own pancake. On a cold day, Beijingers will crowd around a communal hot pot (water-boiled food) vendor, sharing space, heat, and sometimes, saliva. Although the actual embodiments in society are few, words in Mandarin such as “proletariat,” “bourgeoisie,” and “Marxism” are easily recalled by any local. Although I have had few opportunities, I have also met several Tsinghua students. From one student we have learned the growing utilitarian and occupational cultures in the universities, from another we have learned the extremely high number of students wanting to go to Australia, US, England, and France for foreign study. One of the more challenging aspects of living in Beijing, which actually turns out to be an advantage, is the fact that I look like a Chinese national. This, very concretely, means I face a measured higher standard in terms of my language ability, and am assumed to have a deep under-standing of Chinese culture, geography, and ideals by the populace. While this can be seen as a stumbling block, in actuality this means when I converse with Chinese the speed of the language, colloquial language, and expressed viewpoints are not changed for my benefit. This is clearly to my advantage. I also get to completely immerse in the culture more fully, or at least have an ad-vantage in doing so compared to a student who is clearly a foreigner. The Chinese populace treats the two very differently, and I enjoy the benefit of being able to observe both attitudes. More im-portantly, I have experienced a greater willingness by the Chinese I have met to divulge personal family practices and customs, i.e. a hairdresser explaining what he does over the Spring Festival (hunting with an ancient air gun in the mountains and feasting on a pig’s head for days).

ΦΔΕ Spring Newsletter 2008年5月7日星期三

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PLEDGE PROFILES:

Briant Carcamo, 2009Pledge Class Social VPFavorite Language: SpanishFavorite Food: Mexican Cindy Cheng, 2009Pledge Class SecretaryFavorite Language: FrenchFavorite Food: Chili Cheese Fries

Derrick Metriyakool, 2010Favorite Language: ThaiFavorite Food: Yellow Pumpkin Curry Melissa Ng, 2010Pledge Class PresidentFavorite Language: FrenchFavorite Food: Everything Anela Chan, 2010Favorite Language: Japanese

Favorite Food: Chile Con CarneSliman Nawabi, 2009Pledge Class TreasurerFavorite Language:DariFavorite Food: Pasta Devon Peterson, 2011Favorite Language: ArabicFavorite Food:Salmon Nigiri

Greetings from the Pledge Class PresidentMelissa Ng

The Spring 2008 Pledge Class

“I don't really know what there is to say about my pledge class of seven. We're obviously small, but what we lack in numbers we make up for in..."unique-ness." We have worked really hard all semester to put on something this fraternity has never seen and I think we achieved in bringing a different outlook to the organi-zation. The best thing about us though, sorry if this comes off as conceited, is that we truly are a represen-tation of the best thing about this organization. Look-ing at our class, you would never imagine that we would come together, willingly, on our own - based only on appearances we are an odd smorgasbord of friends. But from our pledge event, and everything else, I think we have truly shown that even if we are this odd group of friends, it works - for whatever reason that might be, it works. We are truly grateful to DPE for bringing us to-gether and for introducing us to an even larger smor-gasbord of friends.”


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On the evening of April 30th, 2008, the pledge class of Delta Phi Epsilon held their required event in room 60 Evans. This event was a unique one in which both undergraduate and graduate student teams competed in a trivia game- “The 2008 World Series of Culture”. In the competition, there were a total of 8 teams, each consisting of a maximum of three members. The winners of the game received three ipod shuffles!

Some of the tournament’s question categories were: history, culture, food, geography, sports, and religion. The format was executed as follows:

The entire tournament consisted of two teams competing in successive rounds. When the category of a round was announced, each of the two currently competing teams chose a player to represent them for the category. If a player lost a category, they were not allowed to play for the remainder of the round.

During a category, each competitor was individually asked questions of increasing difficulty. There was a 30 second time limit to answering a question. Each correct answer won the player (and their team) 1 point. The match was over either when a) all the questions for that round have been asked, or b) 4 successive incorrect answers were given (2 by each player). The player with the highest number of points at the end of the category won the topic. The winning team of the match was determined by categories won, not by points (which were only used in player vs. player).

The Pledge Class Event“The 2008 World Series of Culture”

How would you have done?(Some sample questions....answers at

the bottom of page 9)

1. All clues indicate that the successor to Hu Jintao in China will be which Communist Party member recently appointed as vice-president?

2. Before Commodore Matthew Perry famously opened Japan up to trade, what country was the only one that enjoyed exclusive trading rights up until then?

3. A typical mariachi band usually contains three violins, two trumpets, a Mexican guitar, a vihuela, and what small-scaled acoustic bass?

4. What 1981 German film was, at the time, the most expensive in German cinema?

5. London-based designer Hussein Chalayan was born in what country?

6. In ancient Egyptian mythology, what is the name of the goddess of the sky?

7. After Mandarin Chinese, English, and Spanish, what is the most widely-spoken language in the world, in terms of number of native speakers?

8. Though only 5-10 million people speak it as a first language, Swahili is a widely-used second language and lingua franca in what part of Africa?

9. Of the Commonwealth of Nations, what country is the only to be lo-cated on the continent of South America?

10.What is the third most populous Anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and China?


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GRADUATING SENIORSAlbina PopovMajors: Econ, PEISPlans:Wandering around the Bay Area collecting all the learning opportunities I can. In other words, looking for a job.Quote: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” ~Ghandi

Alix FraserMajors: Development Studies, SpanishPlans: World travel, Masters in Int'l Affairs and JD joint degree (’09). (Long Term- Diplomacy--Foreign Service or Inter-national Law work. Then, I will go into politics...Quote:"Live for today, plan for tomorrow and never forget yesterday."

Francisco LopezMajors: PEIS, Political SciencePlans: Short term- work in Mexico/go to grad school. Long term- I don't know, I'll tell you in a few years...Quote: "How vain do you have to be for you to think that you can change the world?" -Unknown

Mary ParrishMajors: International Politi-cal Economy (Concentration: Latin American Agriculture Economics), and Latin American StudiesPlans: Peace Corps in Sep-tember in Latin America, grad school in D.C at either Georgetown or GW, interna-tional development related to agriculture.Quote: “Have no what if ’s”

Nadir ShamsMajors:Development Studies and International Health Care Economics and Policy (ISF) Minor: AnthropologyPlans: Studying abroad at Delhi University for the Fall 08 and plan on interning, researching, or work-ing in a development field until entering law school in 2010.Quote:"If you don't stand for any-thing, you'll fall for anything."

We wi' miss you a'! Thank you for sharing your experiences and wisdom with DPE, actively strengthening our brotherhood, and providing support to your fe'ow brothers. Epsilon wishes you the best of luck in the future, and hopes that you a' return

London ChoiMajor: EnglishPlans: Management Associ-ate Program. I'll get my PhD in English sometime after that.Quote:May we all become movers and shakers of the world from here on out.GO DPE! :D


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Thank YouProfessor Chytry, for your guidance throughout the semester and your willingness to assist us in developing the fraternityLuong Chau, for strengthening brotherhood and further developing both the professionalism and the structure of the fraternity Guest Speakers, for taking your time to come share your wisdom with our fraternity. We greatly appreciate itSarah Van Vliet, for scheduling fascinating speakers and making our External Meetings excitingLorenz Noe, for planning the socials that bond us: salsa dancing, Japanese sushi night, and *moreCassandra Ling and Naomi Lew, for guiding and leading the pledge class through their pledge semesterRachel Whyte, for planning our fundraiser (selling See’s Chocolate), administering our funds, issuing reimbursements, contacting alumni, and managing the Rudy Wagner scholarshipEpsilon Chapter, for your participation and enthusiasm throughout the semester

Letter from Our Advisor, Professor Chytry As recognized by the DPE national office in Washington, DC., the revival of the Epsilon branch at UC Berkeley since 2003 has been an amazing affair. It is worth recalling that around the 1970s all the DPE branches – except one – went defunct. Alpha branch, the mother chapter, survived, probably largely because it is the only chapter which possessed its own building. Notwithstanding discussions at some of the other fourteen former branches, only Epsilon, thanks largely to the labors of alumnus Rudy Wagner and an intrepid band of UC Berkeley un-dergraduates, got off the ground and has since grown magnificently to its present size and luster. Epsilon has been an inspiration for the revival of my own branch, Eta at George Washington University, and I have received further reports of activity at the other former branches thanks to your own present accomplishments and those of your recent predecessors. In addition, the re-vival of Epsilon sends forth two important signals. First, Epsilon is a truly ecumenical branch consisting of sisters and brothers, rather than being split into two gendered sections. And sec-ond, Epsilon allows DPE as a national organization to now claim a presence on both coasts. On both counts and in so many other ways, Epsilon is a major force in the ongoing peda-gogical and service efforts at U.S. academies to reclaim sophistication and understanding on the global plane. Joseph Chytry Delta Phi Epsilon Advisor Eta Chapter, George Washington Alumnus http://staff.haas.berkeley.edu/chytry/

1. Xi Jinping2. Netherlands3. A gitarrón4. Das Boot

5. Turkey6. Nut7. Arabic8. East Africa9. Guyana

10. Jamaica

Answers to Pledge Presentation Questions

http://staff.haas.berkeley.edu/chytry/

http://staff.haas.berkeley.edu/chytry/


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Executive Committee

PresidentLuong ChauClass of 2009

Peace and Conflict Studies

External Vice PresidentSarah Van Vliet

Class of 2010Political Economy of Industrial Societies

Internal Vice PresidentLorenz NoeClass of 2011

Political Science & Political Economy of Industrial Societies

Membership Co-Vice PresidentsNaomi Lew


Cassandra LingClass of 2011

Peace and Conflict Studies & Linguistics

TreasurerRachel Whyte


SecretaryLauren Dankiewicz

Class of 2010Chinese Language & Business Administration

“183 Dwinelle is my favorite classroom because of DPE's company and snacks! =)” ~Cassandra

"If nothing else, DPE is a learning ex-perience in terms of groupdynamics" ~Lorenz

"...all in all, a great night. Ended with my car jammed w/DPE goodtimes--windows fogged up, Lauren on laps, me trying to keep a pokerface in case the police pulled us over, trunk full of backpacks, carfilled with muffins, and of course, air full of DPE love. What a goodnote to end on." ~Luong

"Life is like a box of chocolates. If you would like to buy one please letme know." ~Rachel

“I’m so glad I found DPE during my freshman year! It’s the only organiza-tion at Cal I have wanted to stay with for more than one semester.” ~Lauren

“DPE has not only given me valuable leadership skills, but I've had theopportunity to meet and work with some truly amazing students. I neverfail to be amazed at the incredible ac-complishment of our members.” ~Sarah

"This is my third semester in DPE. My second on Ex Comm. I'll be on Ex Comm next semester as well. I think my feelings about DPE are very clear." ~Naomi

The Diplomat Spring 2008 Vol.1

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Transcript of The Diplomat Spring 2008 Vol.1