Top State Department Fellowships Go to L&C Grads

Two members of the Lewis & Clark community have received prestigious fellowships to prepare for diplomatic careers in the Foreign Service.

Rangel Fellowship

Sarah Lind-MacMillan BA '22 Sarah Lind-MacMillan BA ’22Sarah Lind-MacMillan BA ’22, an international affairs major and L&C’s current student body president, has been awarded a 2022 Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Graduate Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by Howard University. The Rangel is awarded annually to only 45 students nationwide. The fellowship subsidizes two years of graduate study and extensive professional development opportunities. As a Rangel Fellow, Lind-MacMillan will intern with a member of Congress on issues related to foreign affairs. She will then be sent overseas to intern in a U.S. embassy or consulate. Upon successful completion of the program, Lind-MacMillan will become a U.S. diplomat.

Lind-MacMillan credits her background and upbringing with inspiring her to follow this path. “As a Chinese transracial adoptee, I am particularly excited about showing that all kinds of people can represent America,” she says. “I remember numerous times growing up when people would tell me I was not an American because I was Chinese. I want to help remind others that America is a diverse country with many ethnicities and backgrounds represented.”

Pickering Fellowship

Miller BA '20 Miller BA ’20Ellie Miller BA ’20 has been awarded a 2022 Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship following a highly competitive nationwide contest. The Pickering Fellowship, funded by the U.S. Department of State, supports extraordinary individuals who want to pursue a career in the Foreign Service. The Pickering Fellowship will support Miller through a two-year graduate program to receive a master’s degree in an area relevant to the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. She will also have the opportunity to intern for the State Department in Washington, D.C, and overseas, with the goal of becoming a U.S. Foreign Service officer.

Miller, who is the child of foreign correspondents, spent much of her childhood in Europe. She graduated from Lewis & Clark with a double major in French studies and psychology. As an undergraduate, she spent a summer teaching English in Ladakh, India; studied for a semester in Paris; and interned for a summer with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Counterterrorism as a Council of American Ambassadors Fellow. Currently, she is working with CorpsAfrica in Rabat, Morocco, helping manage a volunteer program for Africans modeled on the Peace Corps and applying for graduate programs. “You don’t have to major in international affairs to be a good diplomat,” says Miller. “What’s most important is that you are curious about the world around you.”