Meet Catherine Putz, 2011 Alum

In the decade since I graduated, I moved to DC and worked at a think tank, an international financial institution, and finally landed at The Diplomat, where I am now managing editor. My time at the Patterson School played a crucial role in refining and ultimately achieving this dream position.

When I was a kid, all I ever wanted to do was write when I "grew up." My first thought was to become a teacher, but three things happened while I was studying history at Shippensburg University: I took a course on US Diplomatic History, was selected for an honors program trip to China, and upon returning took a course on the history of Islam in Central Asia. I had discovered my passion and my region. Now my challenge was to find a graduate program where I could nurture and merge my interests in history, politics and international affairs -- I didn't want to study one point in history; I wanted to understand how everything fit together.

I looked beyond the Beltway at top schools with diplomacy and international security programs. Patterson was selective, intimate, and a great value. Indeed, it was the most affordable option by far, and in 2010 - two years into the economic downturn - national employment statistics argued against accumulating significant debt whether my heart was set on a career in government, journalism, or the private sector. I'd never even visited the state of Kentucky before deciding on Patterson. Sometimes you just have to jump.

At the Patterson School, I focused on international security and diplomacy, but to challenge myself I also took Dr. Hillebrand's economics courses because the second year students reported these were the program's most difficult. I threw myself into everything Patterson offered, thoroughly enjoying the crisis simulations and negotiation exercises, carefully reading the feedback scrawled on my memos, sitting around playing war games with Dr. Farley and the other security wonks, and taking time to get to know all my professors and classmates.

I worked a variety of jobs in DC before landing at The Diplomat. I interned at the Atlantic Council with the Strategic Foresight Initiative and then took a series of program assistant jobs with the Cyber Statecraft Initiative before moving to the Communications team, editing the website and running social media. After that, I did a turn as a consultant at the World Bank, working on communications for a governance and anticorruption program. In 2014 I joined The Diplomat as the special projects editor, in 2017 moving up to become managing editor.