Student Dines with Diplomats

Harris School Dean Colm O’Muircheartaigh and PhD student Olena Verbenko were invited to attend a University of Chicago breakfast with ambassadors from around the world on May 14.

The event was a part of the three-day “Experience America” trip to Chicago for the chiefs of diplomatic missions to the United States designed to give ambassadors a chance to exchange ideas with the University faculty, officials, and students about global research and education.

“Never in my life has there been so many important people in the room,” recalls Verbenko, who is in the fifth year of her program with a concentration in corporate social responsibility.

Among those seated at Verbenko’s table were ambassadors from Georgia, Guyana, and Timor-Leste, who sat next to her and discussed education, history, politics, and family. “They were just people like you and me with the same everyday concerns,” she says.

Verbenko was selected from the Harris School’s student body to attend the event by the Graduate Student Affairs office. A Ukrainian citizen, Verbenko says she found a lot in common with the diplomats sitting at her table. “They are visiting the United States as international citizens like me, so it was really easy for me to relate to the people on my right and left,” she says.

That stark contrast between the global magnitude of the event and the personal conversations she had with world leaders is something she won’t easily forget. “It was something that, should I not be at the University of Chicago within this program, I would never get to experience,” she says. “It was surreal.”