Classes, individuals and groups of students alike gathered in the Craft Theater on Tuesday, Sept. 16, chatter and whispers rippling through the crowd. Two speakers, both with significant political experience, had come in for a special Q&A event, organized by the Weiser Diplomacy Center at the University of Michigan. Second and fourth block students of history teachers Ryan Silvester, Joslyn Hunscher-Young and English teacher Sean Eldon all attended that morning, having the opportunity to hear from the former diplomats and ask them questions.
One of the speakers, Ronald E Neumann, has served across the world, from Senegal to Afghanistan, and has been the official U.S. ambassador — the highest diplomat — to three countries: Algeria, Bahrain and Afghanistan during the crucial years of the early 2000s. Rose Gottemoeller, the other speaker, helped negotiate the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) and has served as the deputy secretary to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from 2016 to 2019. The two took time to introduce themselves to students before the question and answer sessions began.
Gottemoller shared her achievements and struggles as the chief negotiator for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. It was a proud moment for her to be a part of the downward trajectory of nuclear weapons. She was the first woman to be a chief negotiator for a nuclear arms treaty of this kind.
Eldon admired both of the speakers’ past achievements.
“Their backgrounds were really cool,” Eldon said. “The obvious scope of knowledge that they both possessed was impressive. It was really interesting to wonder, ‘Who’s gonna do those kinds of jobs in the future? To what extent do our students see themselves in their shoes?’”
One of the differences between the two visitors was the very nature of their service. Gottenmoeller was a political appointee. She worked in democratic administrations, mainly the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama administrations, where she helped with their foreign policy. Neumann, on the other hand, was more military-focused. Starting during Richard Nixon’s presidency in 1970, Neumann worked as an infantry officer in Vietnam. However, both brought forward new perspectives on topics important to students. Clara Woodside, CHS sophomore, believes it’s important to have in-person speakers.
“I feel like a lot of our information comes from news sources, journalists and articles, which is great, but it’s not directly from the source, or if it is, it can be very biased,” Woodside said. “So having people who are professional, who have experience, who have actually been in those fields, answer small questions like that is very important because then we get a broader perspective of things.”
Silvester also felt that bringing in speakers with experience in relevant topics would broaden the understanding of his students.
“We talk a lot about historians and their work, and this gives this kind of lens of how you can apply history and learn about the world into one singular context,” Silvester said. “I thought it was fascinating for students to see. It was great to hear students ask very intelligent questions about the world around us today and to have such experts in their field come in. They didn’t shy away from telling us about the world as it is, right through their account. I think that’s something that Community High School thrives on. It thrives on authenticity and legitimacy.”
Sophomore Elsa Bergman attended the session and was excited to hear these professionals’ opinions.
“I think it’s kind of humanizing learning about these things: learning there’s real people behind these decisions who have to make these choices and seeing how their life progressed to get to that point and what they’ve done,” Bergman said.
Having diplomats who have worked across the world bring different viewpoints on topics important to high school students can open new doors to the future generation of ambassadors and government officials.
