SFS Stories

General George Casey, Jr. (ret.) (SFS’70) is a four-star general who served the US Army for 41 years after he graduated from the SFS. He felt that it was his duty to serve after his father was killed during the Vietnam War.

Reilly Dowd (SFS’13) decided to come to the SFS because she was “obsessed with politics and a total news junkie.” Dowd spent four years directing and producing Dreams of Daraa, a feature film documentary that follows a young Syrian mother and her three children.

Stéphane Dujarric (SFS’88), has served as the spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General since 2014. Dujarric is reminded of the value of his Georgetown education everyday.

Mark Hetfield (SFS’88) is the President and CEO of HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit that provides resettlement assistance to refugees arriving in the United States. Hetfield says his biggest regret is graduating in three years.

Wanjiku Ngare (SFS’13) is a social impact consultant and producer of the upcoming Syrian refugee documentary Dreams of Daraa. Ngare says SFS prepared her directly for her career.

Kara Swisher (SFS’84) is the co-founder and editor-at-large of Recode, a technology news website. Swisher has also worked for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, and currently has an opinion column in the New York Times.

Trae Stephens (SFS’06) is a partner at Founders Fund, a venture capital firm in San Francisco. He was interested in working in national security and wanted to learn Arabic, so Georgetown was a “natural choice.” Recalling late nights in his dorm discussing foreign policy, Stephens valued going to a school with “like-minded people” who cared…

Roger Cochetti (SFS’72) recalls, along with General George W. Casey, Jr. (SFS’70) and Frank Murray (SFS’72) what it was like to be students at Georgetown in the midst of this unrest.