I am beyond grateful to share that last weekend I completed one of the most intellectually fulfilling experiences of my life: earning my Master of Arts in Security Studies from the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service – with distinction and a concentration in Technology and Security.

Over two academic years, I had the rare privilege of learning directly from select members of the American national security elite. I am deeply thankful to the professors who shaped this journey: Professor Gracelin Baskaran, PhD, Michael Sulmeyer, whom I had the honor to serve as a research assistant; Professor Michael Sullivan, Ph.D., Prof. Keir Lieber, Prof. Paula Doyle, Prof. Mike Mazarr, Prof. Bill Priestap, Prof. Dakota Cary, and Prof. Kate Marquis – to name only a few of the world-class experts at Georgetown’s Security Studies Program, ranked the #1 master’s in national security policy in the United States.

Making the experience all the more meaningful, I had the honor of being nominated by my program to serve as Class Marshal for the School of Foreign Service. I am grateful for the mentorship of Director Rebecca Patterson and Professor Sara Bjerg Moller, who have built, at the Georgetown Center for Security Studies, an environment where international students like me can not only adapt, but thrive.

As a 🇷🇴Romanian Fulbright scholar, I arrived in Washington in 2024 with my two suitcases at a moment of profound transatlantic turmoil – a time when the questions I came here to study were no longer abstract, but unfolding in real time on both sides of the Atlantic.
Over these two years, I had the privilege of hosting the first Romanian Foreign Minister to visit Georgetown (with deep thanks to Director Abraham Newman and Professor Stephen J. Flanagan for shouldering this effort), organizing 20 embassy events in a single academic year as Embassy Partnerships Chair, and writing on transatlantic affairs and Romanian and EU foreign and security policy as an Assistant Editor for the Georgetown Security Studies Review. Beyond the theoretical, I learned that sustaining the transatlantic alliance requires everyone to do their part – not just think about policy ideas, but move the needle and execute them.

My generation has had a privilege my parents did not – to grow up in a country anchored in both NATO and the European Union, protected by the American security umbrella. With that privilege comes a moral mandate: not only to preserve the institutions that uphold our shared values of freedom, democracy, and human dignity, but to make them more agile, more just, and more robust in meeting the transnational challenges of our time.

Thank you, Georgetown SSP, for this incredible ride. And a special shout out to the Black Sea Girls alliance – I could have not asked for better friends to share this journey with.
𝘕𝘪𝘩𝘪𝘭 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘰!