Like all readers here, politics
is my hobby and passion.  Unlike some, my political career lies before
me rather than in the pages of a memoir. This mix of politics as both pleasure
and profession is simultaneously one of the most detestable and encouraging
phenomena taking place within the next generation of activists, politicians,
and their advisers.
  
     Students and scholars of politics
compose a unique community in American academia. While a member of it
(currently a rising junior in Intl Pltcs and Intl Studies at Penn State Honors College),
I’ve met young people with astounding work ethics and intelligent causes.

      More frequently, though, the
students I’ve met are on a lust-filled chase for an image. A chase after the
status and respect that comes with being Mr. Diplobasspresiminister without
any of the commitment, sacrifice, or careful study that comes with it. These
students seek the pleasure that a career in politics can bring without
shouldering the burden that is its prerequisite.

     Politics has an air of grand romance about it
that is absent in most other fields of study and, accordingly, draws a handful
of romantics and adventurers. However arrogant it seems, it is rare that I meet
a student who is more dedicated to becoming a statesman than he is to looking
like one. Last week, I experienced a rarity.
      
      I attended the orientation and
convocation for awardees of the National Security Education Program’s David L.
Boren Scholarship that. This award, named after the Senator from Oklahoma with the
longest tenure on the Intelligence Committee, funds overseas study for students
seeking careers in international politics and security.

    I’ve been to conferences like these
before and so have you. A bunch of students "networking" and half-heartedly making political jokes while hoping nobody asks them why it's funny. At least, that’s what I expected before I entered. In a
crowded conference room whose lighting and microphone seemed to be running off
the ambitions of the attendees, I met America’s best political students.

    This group was not on a quest for matters of
image, status, or ego. Rather, each of them was dedicated to his or her own
personal passion. Every student I spoke to articulated precisely why they
wanted to study in Iran, Russia, China, and Singapore, to name a few.

     The real highlight came when Senator Boren addressed the audience. One part really resonated with me. He spoke of the mammoth funding of the military that he has both witnessed and sponsored at different times. While creating the scholarship program, a thought struck him: “America needs to create a ‘stockpile of human talent.’”

Meeting the Senator who penned the National Security Education Act by hand was great, but meeting the “stockpile” was even better.  After two years of study in a University not particularly renowned for political studies, I’ve met a lot of the image chasers I mentioned before. Maybe the situation is different at other universities, maybe not. Regardless, after meeting America’s best students in international politics and relations, I am re-energized by the knowledge that we aren’t heading into the future unarmed.