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Health Care - March 2010 Vote

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Linda Strating: Placing A Priority on Service

Linda Strating: Placing A Priority on Service

Like it did for so many Americans, 9/11 changed Linda Strating. In her Washington, DC office, she was only miles from the Pentagon and if a plane had struck the White House, she would have been in its direct path. As she sought shelter in her building’s basement alongside her coworkers, her thoughts were on her daughter in New York City. Though they had spoken soon after the attack, the uncertainty and horror of what had happened would cause Linda to worry until she knew her daughter was home safely. There in that basement, while the world around her changed in the blink of an eye, Linda’s priorities began to shift as well.

As a child in a military family, Linda learned about service at an early age. Her father’s dedication to his country and his work taught her the importance of citizenship and the role every individual could play in protecting and improving the country. As she visited his grave in Arlington Cemetery, while the Pentagon still lay in smoldering ruins before her, she was reminded of the lessons he had taught her and she knew it was time for her life to take a different turn. She moved quickly north to be with her daughter and figure out her next move.
 
Unfortunately, all the obvious avenues for national service seemed closed to her. She made phone calls and visited websites, considering a career change into the military or intelligence fields, but found that she never quite met the necessary criteria. She lacked the language skills, the training, or the experience. Sometimes she was not young enough, while at other times she could not meet the physical requirements. Frustrated, she kept working as a university administrator in New Jersey while her eagerness to serve her country went unfulfilled for several years. Finally, though, an advertisement for a job back in Washington caught her eye and, within weeks, she found herself returning to DC.
 
The job was as Director of Marketing and Recruitment at the Institute of World Politics. The position was nothing new; Linda had worked as a college administrator for much of her career, in recruitment, marketing, and alumni relations, among other fields. But this school’s mission was different than anything she had known. IWP is a graduate school dedicated to training responsible and capable leaders in all areas of national security and foreign affairs. While graduate programs in international affairs are common, Linda was drawn to IWP’s unique curriculum and its focus on a multidimensional approach to statecraft, cultivating not only its students’ capacity to use the instruments of national power but also the moral framework necessary to use them in a responsible manner. To Linda, IWP was the answer to a prayer; there she could finally use her skills and experience to further a cause she believed could change the country and the world.
 
After years spent searching for her niche, Linda had found a way in which she could serve her country and live up to the standards of service she had strived to reach for so long. Like many Americans, she could not imagine resting idle after 9/11. With her country and her family under attack, she needed an outlet for her energy and ability. But she had to get creative. Most people do not have the training and the experience to work in intelligence, the military, or diplomacy, but this does not mean they do not have a role to play in America’s future security. Making the United States of tomorrow safer than the United States of today requires a comprehensive effort that demands the highest standards of excellence and expertise in a very broad range of subjects. Today, Linda believes she is playing an integral role in training future peacemakers. IWP’s students go on to serve in all those fields that Americans automatically associate with national security. They work for the State Department, the Defense Department, the CIA, and so many other government agencies. By identifying promising students and encouraging IWP’s mission, Linda Strating is helping to cultivate a renewable supply of diplomats, generals, and intelligence officers. She is happy in the knowledge that she is doing her part to serve her country in her own unique way and to live up to the standards her father set for her years ago. Linda found a job that only she could do and is dedicated to doing it as well as possible, for the good of her country, her community, and her daughter, for the years to come.