Local man describes job in Foreign Service

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
   Daniel Mejia is the first to admit that being a Foreign Service officer in the U.S. Department of State is a “cool” job.
   It is a career that Mr. Mejia had set his sights on when he was a young child, growing up in Lawrence Township.
   But even Mr. Mejia did not fully appreciate just how cool his job is until he found himself face to face with President Barack Obama, while the fledgling diplomat was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.
   President Obama was visiting Indonesia and had stepped out into the hallway where Mr. Mejia was standing. The president winked at Mr. Mejia, and he was so excited that he ran to tell his friends on Facebook about his encounter with the president.
   The 28-year-old Mr. Mejia, who graduated from Lawrence High School in 2003, shared that story with Lawrence High School juniors and seniors in the school’s Academy of Arts & Humanities last week. He was visiting his alma mater as part of the U.S. Department of State’s Hometown Diplomats Program.
   Holding up his black-covered passport, which is issued to diplomats instead of the blue-covered ones issued to ordinary citizens, Mr. Mejia said, “This thing is awesome. I use it to pass all the lines (at the airport), like immigration and customs.”
   While it is a rewarding career, the path to becoming a diplomat is not easy, the Harvard University graduate told the students. Would-be diplomats must be between 21 years old and 59-and-one-half to join, and they must show a commitment to the United States. He was 26 years old when he joined the Foreign Service in 2010, but most diplomats join later in life, he said.
   As recently as 10 or 20 years ago, Foreign Service officers were graduates of an Ivy League college. Now, the Foreign Service is “super diverse,” Mr. Mejia said. But to gain a competitive edge, he learned Mandarin Chinese in addition to Spanish.
   ”If you are serious about a career as a Foreign Service officer, (being able to speak) Chinese is ridiculously important. Arabic is most desired,” Mr. Mejia said, adding that fluency in Korean, Urdu, Uzbek and Russian are also desirable.
   While holding a degree from an Ivy League college is not a requirement, applicants for the Foreign Service must be well-read, he said.
   A self-described “nerd” in high school, Mr. Mejia said he studied hard and took many Advanced Placement courses. He advised the students to become familiar with foreign affairs by reading The New York Times or The Economist.
   The ability to obtain top-secret security clearance is critical, Mr. Mejia said. This means keeping out of trouble — no speeding tickets, no drug use. It also means being careful in making friends, he said, adding that his friendship with a Chinese woman resulted in a lengthy process to obtain security clearance.
   Once he was accepted as a Foreign Service officer, he was assigned to the Political Section at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. He analyzed and reported on Indonesia’s relationships with the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America, as well as Indonesia’s relations with the United Nations and the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement.
   ”I wrote (diplomatic) cables (that were sent back to Washington, D.C.), and I met with people and collected information. I analyzed and reported it. My job is to talk to people from all over society,” he said, comparing his job to being a journalist for the U.S. government.
   During his two-year stint in Indonesia, Mr. Mejia worked on two presidential visits — but it wasn’t as glamorous as it might appear. He was the baggage boy. His job was to meet the baggage plane, but he also observed the ceremony when President Obama arrived on Air Force One.
   Mr. Mejia also served as the site officer when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with her Russian counterpart. Ms. Clinton is very particular. She wants the label peeled off her bottle of water, and to have the bottle cap loosened just a little bit so that it is not too hard for her to open, he said.
   But if the bottle cap is opened all the way, Ms. Clinton will not accept it, Mr. Mejia said.
   U.S. Embassy diplomats also help American citizens who are visiting the country, he said. He recalled one weekend, when he was named the duty officer. This meant he had to handle all of the phone calls — including one that he received at 4 a.m., when a citizen informed him that his friend was missing.
   Mr. Mejia called the hospitals and checked with the police, and then sent out the Marines to find the missing American man. Around 10 a.m., Mr. Mejia received a call that the man had turned up, safe and sound.
   If an American citizen gets into trouble with the law, embassy diplomats visit the citizen in prison, Mr. Mejia said. The goal is to ensure that the citizen is not being mistreated, and that he or she is being fed and that their rights are not being violated.
   ”(But) we have to respect the local laws,” he said.
   The job does have its dangers, Mr. Mejia said, in a nod to last month’s deadly terror attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. The U.S. ambassador and three employees were killed when terrorists invaded the embassy.
   ”It could have been me,” he said.
   Having served his stint in Indonesia, Mr. Mejia is preparing for his next assignment as a consular officer in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, China. His duty is to interview Chinese residents who are seeking visas, taking 60 to 90 seconds to complete the interview and determine whether the interviewee is likely to return to China.
   He compared his duties to being a “human lie detector.” If he believes the interviewee is likely to return to China, he would recommend granting a visa — but if he feels the person might not return, he would recommend against issuing the visa.
   ”Being a diplomat is cool. You should all consider it,” Mr. Mejia urged the students.