Madeline Schulz

I attribute my success 100% to my parents. I honestly could not do it without them. And also that military environment, I think for me, just learning if you were surrounded by people who are all working towards a collective goal for your entire life, that mindset is something that you carry with you. My parents really just instilled in me, making sure that you were always not only taking time for yourself, but when you are driven for something, you should go for it. Especially my mom and dad, my dad I look up to, my mom has always instilled in me this belief that I can do it, and I think that's something that, for women working in male-dominated fields as well, that's really, really important to know.

The best piece of advice I've ever received came from my mentor Yulia Josia, who is one of the adjunct professors at GW and a former advisor to the Romanian president. When I first got to college, the first thing she said to me was, make sure you try one of everything, whether it be internships or experiences. If you get a job in the Department of Energy, and that's not something you want to do, take it anyways, just because it is really important to learn early on what you don't like, because then you will be able to find avenues where you'll learn what you do. For me, what I learned very quickly is I don't do well in economics, I don't like economics, but I learned that through having to apply those skills, not because I was hesitant to take a job because of it.

I would say approach everything with confidence. I think, for me, I have never questioned whether or not I bring value to something. If I'm sitting at a table with people who are older than me, or more experienced than me, there's a reason that you're all there, and you all bring something to the conversation, so not doubting yourself, which is a really, really hard learned skill, but I think that you have a really important voice, and you have something important to say, so if you have the opportunity to say it or push for what you want, then you absolutely should take that opportunity.

The biggest challenge is, both in the Middle East world and in politics, finding what that middle ground is, and being able to find those conversations and those windows for opportunity to connect with people. I think that is really difficult when you have people going in with very set opinions. I think the way you accomplish your goals in that case is coming in open, coming in ready to not push back too much, but say, I'm genuinely gonna listen to you, I'm gonna hear what you have to say, and then we'll move from there. The biggest opportunity is connecting with really, really wonderful people. I mean, both through my work community and also at GW. Everyone comes from such unique backgrounds and expertise, and I'm incredibly grateful to say that not one person I work with is similar. So every single person has different connections and different people they know, and I've really been able to sort of capitalize on that by forming these connections with people and getting able to talk to everyone with new experiences.

I think for me, my approach is always openness, so never going into something with preconceived notions, but being open to hearing what the other person has to say, and not approaching it from a combative perspective. I think that carries you very far in a workplace. Going in with a sense of openness, because at the end of the day, you guys are all here because you have the same core goal. You want to accomplish similar things, you want everyone to be successful, you want everyone to be happy. So going in, recognizing that there might be differing opinions, but there always is a solution to something. And I mean, I think always just being respectful, that's something that I value. I don't ever walk into a room going, I'm gonna be the first person to talk. I like to take it all in, and hear what everyone has to say, and then go from there.