Bristow, Va., senior Sandra Zuniga Guzman awarded Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship

Sandra Zuniga Guzman, a University of Richmond senior from Bristow, Va., has been selected as a fellow of the Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship Program.

Guzman, a double major in political science and international studies, will attend a two-year master’s degree program at Johns Hopkins University's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, concentrating in international economics and Latin American affairs.

The Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship is highly selective and funded by the U.S. Department of State. It trains men and women possessing the academic knowledge, needed skills and dedication to representing America's interests abroad for State Department careers. Upon completion of her graduate studies, Guzman will receive a three-year assignment as a foreign service officer.

The fellowship covers tuition, room and board, and fees and provides stipends for two summer internships, one domestic and one abroad.

Guzman is an Oldham Scholar at Richmond. She is the recipient of this year’s Spencer Albright Book Award from the university's political science department and Robert E. Loving Book Award from the campus chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. She is a co-founder of both Street Law, a student group teaching about law and human rights to middle and high school students, and the campus chapter of The Roosevelt Institute, the largest student-run public policy development effort in the country. She also serves as a Youth Leadership Institute national ambassador.

Guzman plans a career in international public service that merges her interests in technology, education and transnational migration policy.