On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed executive orders putting a 90-day pause on U.S. foreign assistance funding and a hiring freeze on the federal workforce. By April, the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had cut thousands of jobs in the federal government, including closing the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and firing staff at Voice of America, AmeriCorps and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Although many cuts remain held up in court battles, the disruption to the federal workforce has been undeniable. The Trump administration has also reduced and dismantled independent affiliated organizations like the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Wilson Center. The foreign assistance funding pause became permanent with the Trump administration eliminating over 90% of USAID funding totaling $6 billion.
These executive actions concerning the federal workforce and funding had a substantial impact on the SFS community. Many alumni and students lost their jobs, with others also losing their planned career paths. Between 2022 and 2024, over 60% of SFS graduate alumni took jobs in the public or nonprofit sectors, while about 33% of undergraduate alumni went into these sectors. SFS Dean Joel Hellman, the SFS Career Center and SFS graduate programs responded quickly to bring together the SFS community in support for the affected individuals.
While acknowledging the unprecedented impact on the SFS community, Hellman remains confident that the SFS mission is still relevant: “This is surely a time where our work—our research, our teaching and our engagement with the next generation of leaders—has never been more important,” he says.
The SFS Career Center, headed by Executive Director Nathan Slusher, is on the front lines as the impact is felt. He says his team saw “a significant uptick in alumni and student appointment requests” along with increased engagement in programming from alumni. They mobilized to provide support: first, through one-on-one appointments and targeted programming for immediately impacted students and alumni, and then by expanding pathways to access for alumni, lowering barriers like Georgetown NetID requirements and curating external resources.
“So many alumni have expressed so much gratitude to SFS for making our resources available to them. Knowing that the SFS community is rallying around them seems to have a very positive impact on their morale,” Slusher says.
He joined Hellman for a Fast Break virtual alumni event on February 21, 2025. During the webinar, they discussed the overwhelming demand for career support, sharing insights on how alumni can transition to state and local government roles, access resume assistance and make the most of networking opportunities.
Global Human Development program leans into community
The Global Human Development (GHD) master’s program has been one of the hardest hit by the cuts. Kristen Robinson, associate director of academic programs for GHD, explains: “The executive actions have had a profound impact on our student and alumni community. Countless alumni have been laid off, furloughed and placed on administrative leave, and current students have seen their internship and job offers revoked and fellowships cancelled.”
GHD students Kyla Denwood, Kennedy Copeland, and Richard Newsome (all GHD’25) participate in a sustainable planting event in the Hoya Harvest Garden
GHD faculty and staff mobilized to provide support, focusing on providing space for alumni to connect with each other and with current students to demonstrate the transferable skills provided by the degree to other settings. In particular, Professors Steven Radelet and Erwin Tiongson, director and deputy director of the GHD program, have been instrumental in these efforts.
“We have highlighted career paths that might not be ‘traditional’ development roles but present significant synergy with the GHD skill-set and opportunities to maintain connectedness with a sense of mission and purpose,” Robinson says.
To this end, Tiongson has worked for the past several years to expand GHD’s partnerships beyond “traditional” development roles. “Professor Radelet helped organize panels featuring alumni working in management consulting, impact investing, M&E and research and varied private sector career paths. We view our role as both validating the real hardship that our students and alumni are experiencing and reaffirming the importance of this work,” Robinson says.
GHD has also partnered with the SFS Career Center to host targeted sessions for alumni and current students to share resources. Peer-to-peer support has been crucial for the GHD community with some displaced alumni already finding new roles through leads from their peers.
“GHD prides itself on being a tight-knit, supportive community, and this has never been more clear than [this year], when students and alumni have volunteered to make themselves available as a job-search resource for fellow GHDers and shared their experiences more broadly as panel participants,” Robinson says.
The power of the SFS network
Colin Steele (SFS’12) speaks to Dean Joel Hellman at the SFS Networking Reception on March 14, 2025.
Colin Steele (SFS’12) is a strong believer in the power of the SFS network.
“One of the things I really love about the SFS is that it’s a magnet for creative, mission-driven people who really want to make positive change in the world—and who go on to do that in all sorts of interesting ways,” he says.
Steele watched with dismay as many of his SFS classmates lost jobs and was inspired to pitch in: “I’ve benefited tremendously from SFS career officers and professors over the years, many of whom have become friends and colleagues as well as mentors and guides. I’m very happy to have had a chance to expand my work as an industry advisor with the SFS Career Center over the past several months—we’ve scaled up from ad-hoc, one-on-one coaching calls for alumni to building and scaling resources for students and alumni affected by job cuts, including an ongoing series of structured networking Zooms.”
In his career advising calls, Steele encourages alumni to reconnect to their sense of purpose: “If what you ‘are’ is, say, a development professional, you’re likely to stay stuck. If, instead, you can reconnect and recommit to the change you’re seeking to make or the people you’re seeking to serve—the reason you went to a school like SFS and chose this type of career path in the first place—then you can start thinking about other ways to show up. There are still resources available, SFS-ers bring a lot to the table, and the world certainly hasn’t run out of problems—the opportunity is to figure out new ways to connect resources and skills to address the world’s needs today.”
“Stay focused, and tune out the outside noise”
Monica Gonzalez (MSFS’11) has had a varied career since graduating from the Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program, working in Colombia in communications and storytelling for 12 years on USAID-funded projects. She moved back to the U.S. a little over a year ago for a business development role for the Latin America and Caribbean region at Mercy Corps. In February 2025, she was laid off.
Gonzalez reached out to the SFS Career Center and was connected with Laura Sheehan, the associate director: “As I conveyed the challenging context I am living, [Sheehan] intently listened to my concerns, frustrations and thoughts that I had been carving out as I am suddenly forced to pivot my career search as a mid-career professional. A top priority of mine is how to strategically harness all my networking capacities, leveraging them to be open to new possibilities—and to do so quickly.”
Monica Gonzalez (MSFS’11) spent 12 years working in Colombia in communications and storytelling on USAID-funded projects. Here she is in Antigua, Guatemala on a consultancy project.
Sheehan connected Gonzalez with targeted industry advisors while also working with her on resume and LinkedIn strategy, networking tips and using AI for job searching.
As an MSFS graduate with a “generalist degree,” Gonzalez feels that she has the skills to pivot: “We are problem solvers at heart and possess skills to grasp the big picture while operating in complex contexts. As international development career professionals, we are now living these moments on our home turf. Using these same skills, I am assessing my resources, identifying gaps, shifting priorities and leaning in on strengths and networks (relationships) to move out and forward.”
While she feels like she is still in “the eye of the storm,” Gonzalez has been encouraged by the SFS Career Center’s support. She advises other alumni in a similar situation to stay focused and “tune out the outside noise.”
“The surroundings may be changing but you have not—your values, your intelligence, and your unique skill sets and experiences are ever more needed,” Gonzalez says.
Holding true to “men and women for others”
Karla Giuliano Sarr (SFS’02) credits her culture and politics major honors thesis with setting her on the path towards a career related to research. It started as an “exciting whirlwind,” flying to Senegal on the evening of her graduation ceremony to take a job organizing a conference with the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. After getting a Ph.D. in international education, Sarr went on to teach at the SIT Graduate Institute, lead research and evaluation projects of international development programming and most recently work at EnCompass, LLC, a Maryland-based consulting firm whose largest client was USAID.
Karla Giuliano Sarr graduated SFS in 2002 before beginning a varied career in international education.
“EnCompass was a woman-owned enterprise that was just transitioning from a small business to a medium-sized one. It was vulnerable as it made the transition, and we never imagined that we would lose our main client overnight,” Sarr explains. “We received stop work orders beginning January 24, and they kept coming. EnCompass closed its operations in February. Over 400 people at my company alone lost [their] jobs.”
Sarr is struggling to keep up morale after seeing the sudden dissolution of her track of the last 20+ years: “I am morally devastated to watch my career and expertise be devalued and become somewhat irrelevant. I believed deeply in the work I and my colleagues were doing. We were mission-oriented and driven to make a difference for people overseas and for Americans at home.”
She is looking at pivoting her focus to more domestic work: “I know I’m building on the SFS foundation where I deepened my critical thinking, writing and interpersonal skills. Moreover, I remain committed to the Jesuit vision of ‘men and women for others’. That may be the best gift I took from GU.”
Looking ahead
Nathan Slusher, executive director of the SFS Career Center, addresses alumni and students at the SFS Networking Reception on March 14, 2025.
Slusher is leading the Career Center to be prepared for different stages of support: “When alumni engage, they are often at different points of processing what is happening. If they’ve just been furloughed, they are often processing the shock with us. If they’ve had a bit more time to process and/or they know they have a specified end date, they are more likely to be in active planning mode, working to update resumes, explore other industries and tap into their networks.”
The Career Center is also mobilized to support the Class of 2025 as they begin or pivot their post-graduation planning. They have put together a list of resources for SFS alumni and students that continues to be updated. But one thing that Slusher wants students and alumni to know is that they are not in this alone: “The SFS ecosystem—our career centers, staff, faculty and amazing alumni network—is here for you. This will take time—there’s no easy fix. But there’s also no better time to lean into your SFS network.”
