Master of Science in Foreign Service Centennial
The Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) program began in 1922 with the goal of preparing students to successfully engage with dynamic global challenges and opportunities.
Our students use their training and ingenuity to forge a safer, more prosperous, equitable and peaceful world. Their experiences and knowledge enrich our understanding of the dynamism of the global arena and the known and unforeseen challenges our current students will face. Discover how the Master of Science in Foreign Service program has developed through the decades.
1920s: The founding of the school’s first graduate degree program
The School of Foreign Service (SFS) started in 1919 as an undergraduate program. The school leaders began conceptualizing a graduate degree program shortly after its conception.
The classes were all in the evening, as the program was created for working professionals. They met off-campus at a downtown building that also housed the Law School.
In the early days, the curriculum was designed to help students gain expertise in specific international business areas, including shipping, trade and consular issues.
Class of 1922
The first graduating class of the Master of Science in Foreign Service in 1922 consisted of ten men, most of whom grew up in affluent northeastern families.
Frederick Gillis
Frederick Gillis was born in Boston, Massachusetts, where he lived most of his life with his wife and six children. He received his BA from Boston University 1916, and his MA from the Catholic University of America in 1917. He then served as an infantry officer during World War. When he returned, he continued his education at Georgetown University’s newly established MSFS program.
After Georgetown, he worked as a commercial counselor for the Czechoslovak Legation in Washington, D.C. until 1923, then took a posting as the UN delegate to the International Congress in Guatemala.
He made his way back to his hometown to pursue a PhD in Philosophy at Boston College. Frederick Gillis was then a professor at Catholic University of America, Boston College, Teachers’ College of the City of Boston, Boston University, Regis College, and State Teachers’ College. He served as an instructor for the Massachusetts Department of Education, and a Director of Teacher Training in graduate school for Boston College. In 1935, he was appointed as the Assistant Superintendent of Boston Public Schools, where he served for 25 years until he was elected Superintendent in 1960. Throughout his career, He was notably on the progressive cusp of making education accessible to those with mental and physical disabilities. He contributed by establishing national teaching standards for Special Education.
Harold DeCourcey
Herald Decourcey was born in Massachusetts, the son of a State Supreme Court Justice. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University before his service in World War I. He was in the American Ambulance Service embedded with the French Army. When he returned home, he attended Georgetown for his Masters of Foreign Service, receiving his diploma in 1922. He married his wife, Margaret, in 1923 and settled in Chevy Chase, MD, where they started their family.
Herald served as an assistant in the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce at the Department of Commerce after graduation. He eventually became a professor at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, specializing in classes on commercial law. He passed away after retirement at the age of 63 and is buried at Arlington Cemetery.
Raymond C. Miller
Raymond C. Miller hailed from Indiana, joining the Army during World War I as an Infantry Lieutenant. He served as a General’s aide and was later promoted to Captain. After his service, he moved to Washington, D.C. to attend classes at Georgetown, obtaining his MSFS degree in 1922.
Post-MSFS, Miller became an assistant professor at Georgetown and began a career at the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, where he served as assistant chief of the European Division in 1924. He became the trade commissioner in Paris and afterwards was appointed commercial attaché in Brussels. After leaving the Department of Commerce in 1933, he served as the director of import-export relations in the office of the Special Advisor of the President on Foreign Trade. He was tasked with sorting foreign applications for importation of alcohol, a demanding role in post-prohibition America.
By 1944, after what already seems to have been an illustrious career, he joined the State Department’s Foreign Service, becoming the Inspector General in 1953. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1960.
He married his wife Louise in 1923 and they had two sons who later worked for the United States Information Agency and the other working for the Agency for International Development.
1930s: Classes move to Healy Hall
By the 1930s, graduate classes in the School of Foreign Service moved to Healy Hall. This move onto campus from the previous downtown location further connected the Master of Science in Foreign Service students to the Georgetown community and cemented their presence within SFS.
1940s: Master of Science in Foreign Service during the wartime
Due to the draft, all students took on the responsibility of wartime. Photos of MSFS students during the early 1940s show the men in uniform during classes, awaiting or just returning from their tour of duty. The graduation rosters change to include a military rank before every graduate’s name. In the photo below, Fr. Walsh teaches a classroom full of uniformed men.
1950s: A small program investing in the future
With only six enrollees in the Master of Science in Foreign Service in 1951, the program was still small but steadily developing to prepare graduates for the changing world.
In the 1950s, the program hosted West German students participating in a State Department-sponsored exchange program to bridge the critical alliance in business and political affairs. Additionally, air transportation courses were added in the early part of the decade, as this burgeoning industry was directly related to foreign relations and international trade.
Construction of the Edmund A. Walsh Memorial Building was completed in 1959. This facility would house the MSFS for the next 30 years and is still used today for Georgetown classes and beyond. President Eisenhower honored Georgetown University by attending the dedication of the Walsh Building and receiving an honorary degree during the event.
1960s: First female graduates
The 1960s brought much-anticipated change to the MSFS program. Although there had been female students at Georgetown as early as the 1940s, the graduate rosters show that the first female graduates from the MSFS program were from the class of 1964. The first three females to receive the MSFS degree were Paula Wiegard, Olga Zoghby and Phoebe Sharkey. Sharkey recalls that they did not know they would be making history at the time.
1970s: Development of new programs
In 1972, Dean Peter F. Krogh appointed Chester A. Crocker as the first full-time director of the MSFS program. This marked Crocker’s return to academia. Before his appointment to the National Security Council by Henry Kissinger, he was a lecturer in African government and politics at American University.
Under this new leadership, the MSFS introduced new co-curricular programs, including second-year, policy-oriented workshops and final oral exams administered by practitioners in the field. The Hoya praised the MSFS’s emphasis on practical skills-oriented training as a successful example amid a hubbub of Georgetown graduate students being underprepared for future careers after graduation.
“It was pointed out that in the Master of Science in Foreign Service program, for example, an element of that program’s success is the stress on a generalist, interdisciplinary knowledge,” said The Hoya’s Graduate Conservator in an article on February 28, 1975.
This decade also saw the controversial appointment of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to the post of University Professor of Diplomacy. Rather than teaching ordinary classes, Kissinger gave lectures on current issues in international affairs, which were open to SFS graduate students but closed to the media, including campus newspapers. Several MSFS students attended his lectures on Cold War foreign policy and beyond.
Throughout the 1970s, MSFS continued to bolster its recruitment and celebration of international students.
1980s Intercultural Center becomes the new home for the Master of Science in Foreign Service
Our home in the Bunn Intercultural Center (ICC) began in the the early 1980s. The ICC was completed in 1982, while the 7th Floor Salaam Intercultural Resource Center, now serving as the administrative home and student center for the MSFS program, was opened seven years later in a 1989 dedication ceremony presided by President Jimmy Carter.
Participation in the national TV program American Interests
“American Interests” was a series of weekly half-hour television programs on American foreign policy produced by the School of Foreign Service and distributed by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). First broadcast on WETA Channel 26 in Washington, DC, in October 1981, after three months, it was broadcast nationally by satellite. Moderated by SFS Dean Peter F. Krogh, the series featured guest speakers, including leaders and notable individuals from academia, business, government and journalism.
Dean Krogh interviews Thomas Sowell on Wealth Creation, Human Capital, and Colonialism in American Interests
Developing international prestige
The MSFS program received a thorough review and was selected as one of the handful of graduate programs on the main campus for additional resources to achieve international distinction.
Henry Kissinger addresses students
Though no longer a regular lecturer, Kissinger maintained his connection to the MSFS community, as shown in his 1987 lecture to MSFS students.
1990s: The Master of Science in Foreign Service is praised as the “new MBA” in the new world order
An article in The Hoya in 1992 declares, “The MBA degree is out. The MSFS degree is in,” praising the employability and sought-after credentials of MSFS graduates among international firms. As “the international world [becomes] a part of everyone’s life,” companies have shifted towards global corporate strategies and thus increasingly searched for candidates who are “culturally aware” and can navigate change, said Maria Carland, assistant director of the SFS graduate division who also served as a career counselor for MSFS students.
MSFS students said the flexibility and broadness of the graduate program gave them an edge over MBA students. “The key thing here is that you have a lot of options.” said Robyn Webby (MSFS ’94). “The workshops and the consortium classes give you a broad background.”
The Master of Science in Foreign Service in the new millennium
Over the last two decades, the program has continued to go from strength to strength under the successive leadership of Deans Robert Gallucci, Carol Lancaster and Joel Hellman, and the MSFS Directors Carol Lancaster, Peter Dunkley, Jim Reardon-Anderson, John Kline, Anthony Clark Arend, Nancy McEldowny and George Shambaugh. The MSFS student body has continued to grow, and the curriculum has moved to adapt to new times.
During this period, the MSFS concentrations were reorganized to their current iterations of Global Politics and Society; Global Business, Finance, and Society; and International Development. The MSFS program also benefited from a significant expansion of joint appointments that brought faculty in the College departments of Economics, Government and History into the School of Foreign Service and vice-versa. This expansion enabled the MSFS program to maintain its commitment to having all its core courses taught by full-time university faculty while enabling its practitioner faculty to focus on their comparative advantage in bringing real-world experiences to the classroom through targeted elective courses. The MSFS program also benefited from other innovations, including Dean Galucci’s addition of the Mortara Center with its research facilities honoring Madeline Albright and a renewed emphasis on bringing in practitioners; Director and Dean Lancaster’s creation of the complementary Master in Global Human Development; Director Arend’s expansion of innovative leadership training at Gettysburg; and Director McEldowney’s emphasis on promoting women in diplomatic affairs.
In 2020, under Director Shambaugh’s leadership, the MSFS program introduced the first graduate-level concentration in Science, Technology, and International Affairs. With the help of the MSFS Advisory Board, he institutionalized ongoing efforts to address diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), guaranteed funding for student internships and expanded our local and international engagement. More importantly, he and Dean Hellman helped the program navigate the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic and come out of it stronger than ever. Reflecting these innovations, MSFS welcomed the largest cohorts in their history in 2021 and 2022, with roughly 120 students in each class. As we celebrate 100 years of MSFS history, we look to how we can transform the MSFS program for the next generation of leaders.
Centennial celebrations
From December 2021 to December 2022, our MSFS centennial celebrations reconnected us with one another to honor our shared history, reaffirm our mission and lean forward into our next century.
Centennial awards
The MSFS Centennial Awards recognized a small group of distinguished alumni who best embodied the program’s guiding principles of leadership, creativity, ethics, service and inclusion.
The MSFS Centennial Gala on December 2, 2022, honored six MSFS alumni: Ragnheiður Elín Árnadóttir (MSFS’94), Ambassador Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat (MSFS’80), Nicole Bibbins Sedaca (MSFS’97), Raja Karthikeya Gundu (MSFS’09), Michael Samway (SFS’91, MSFS’91) and Paula Gene Loyd (MSFS’04).