Nora Joyce ’22 and Lilly Black ’22 have started a new chapter of the John Quincy Adams Society at Swarthmore College. The nonpartisan student organization, which was founded in 2016, is centered around international foreign policy and has chapters at dozens of colleges. Joyce outlined how JQAS will function at Swarthmore.
“The club focuses on foreign policy issues from a perspective of restraint [and] provides foreign policy-related career opportunities/resources … [Black and I] hope that Swarthmore’s chapter of JQAS will have bi-weekly meetings in which we learn about current events from a non-partisan lens, discuss policy choices, and plan for our special events,” said Joyce. “We are hoping to host one major speaker and/or career-related event each semester, with support from the JQAS headquarters in Washington to bring in speakers that Swarthmore students will find most interesting and helpful.”
Joyce explained why she and Black decided to start such an organization at Swarthmore, touching upon the origins of JQAS and specifically highlighting the impressive success it has seen despite only starting a few years ago.
“Lilly Black and I attended the John Quincy Adams Society Summer Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. over the summer of 2019, in which we discussed issues of foreign policy, learned leadership skills, and practiced networking. We liked that JQAS had the money and organizational resources to assist the development of dozens of college chapters after only two years of existence, many of which had become quite successful already. We felt that Swarthmore’s campus could benefit from a chapter with these resources to discuss international affairs and foreign policy-related careers,” said Joyce.
The JQAS Swarthmore chapter is looking for new board members, as currently the only filled positions are those of President (Nora Joyce) and Vice President (Lilly Black).
“We do not want to have a traditional hierarchy of positions with titles such as Secretary or Treasurer. Instead, we would like to encourage members to take positions they find most interesting and with which they can make the most impact. For example, we might have a Director of Chinese Policy Studies, a Director of Special Events, a Graphic Design Chair, etc. We believe that by allowing members to work with us to create unique jobs/titles, board positions can become more tailored to the individual, rather than the other way around. We want any member to have the option to take a board position in an area [they find] most interesting, fun, and beneficial to list on [their] resume,” said Joyce.
In terms of upcoming events and meetings for JQAS, Joyce shared that the club will have its next meeting sometime after Spring Break. For more information, contact Nora Joyce at njoyce1@swarthmore.edu.
