President’s Spotlight: The International Programs Onboarding Team

Starting now and continuing at least through the end of my time here at the U.S. Naval War College, I’d like to regularly highlight someone or something that’s caught my attention over the previous couple of weeks. It might be a person – student, faculty or staff – who deserves recognition, or it might be an occasion I want to draw more attention to. These short ‘President’s Spotlight’ pieces will be posted about once every two weeks.

It seems like just yesterday, we were all gathered on Dewey Field for an amazing commencement ceremony, celebrating the graduation of hundreds of experienced and accomplished military and civilian leaders.

Not to alarm you, but the next academic year is already almost here, and for many people here at the U.S. Naval War College (NWC), summer was no break.

In this edition of my spotlight series, I want to highlight some of the people who have been among our busiest colleagues: The men and women in our International Programs (IP) department who have been welcoming our newest foreign students, who began arriving in early July.

Our U.S. military members and retirees reading this know very well how challenging Permanent Change of Station (PCS) moves can be. Moving overseas can be even more complicated.

Each of the extraordinary international military officers enrolling in our college must travel to the United States – often with families – make their way to Newport, Rhode Island, and settle into temporary berthing while they connect with local sponsors, look for more permanent residency, identify schools or child care options, find vehicles and check into all of our many systems and programs here at the NWC.

And for many of them, they’re navigating these challenges in a second or third language.

Every step along the way, our dedicated IP team is helping make that daunting transition as smooth as it can be.

Dionne Horrabine and her team, Tess Beaudoin and Alex Paul, coordinated arrivals and in-processing paperwork – that’s an enormous workload that includes setting up housing, pay, bank accounts and so much more.

Ty Lemerande – with backup from Cmdr. Joe Dearing – coordinated the team of summer-over students and embedded officers who are providing logistical support for the incoming students, including pickups at the airport and movements through our onboarding process.

Ann Marie Von Recum, who worked with Dionne and Ty to line up and coordinate with local sponsors, to ensure the generous community members who volunteer to be matched up as cultural guides with international students know when their new friends arrive and how they can help.

Rhonda Gower worked tirelessly on orientation, working with Ty on the airport logistics, while meticulously preparing all the required paperwork and documentation for the new students and lining up all the supplies needed to execute follow-on Orientation Week events.

And there are so many more who supported this herculean effort in large and small ways – I appreciate you all. It truly is a team effort.

With years of experience working these problem sets alongside dozens – or hundreds – of international students annually, our IP staff knows how to simplify these processes, ease our new students’ minds and allow them to concentrate on what brought them here: Learning military strategy, planning and operations, and building relationships that will last deep into our countries’ futures.

These initial experiences for our newest students set the tone for the entire academic year and build the foundation for alliances and partnerships that can contribute to global peace and prosperity.

It’s so critical we get this right for our new friends and colleagues, and I want to thank our IP team for their tireless efforts to do so.

– Rear Adm. Darryl Walker,
President, U.S. Naval War College