In 2012, Rose Butchart, a College of Liberal Arts & Sciences graduate from the University of Iowa, spent countless hours perched over her computer hammering away the final touches on her senior year honors thesis. Little did she know then that her hard work would lead to hosting the Kurdish President and his fourteen-person delegation during an internship in Washington, D.C.

“I helped with preparations for [the Kurdish President’s] meetings with U.S. President Obama and Vice President Biden, as well as events at the Chamber of Commerce and major think tanks like the Council of Foreign Relations and the Atlantic Council,” she says.

Butchart, who majored in International Studies and Creative Writing with a minor in French at the UI, spent the first part of 2015 as a diplomatic intern at the Kurdistan Regional Government—Iraq’s (KRG’s) diplomatic mission in Washington, D.C.

She landed there in part, she says, through her senior honors thesis that examined what government actions correlate to terrorist activity in stateless nations. One way she illustrated her points was through the use of a Kurdish case study.

According to her research, stateless nations “are groups that have all characters of a country, a common language, a shared history, but lack sovereignty.” The 25-year-old came across this concept for her thesis in some of her UI classes, and was very interested in learning more about the region and the idea.

“Often, it seems that the most valuable thing is in-depth, country/region specific research,” she says, noting the importance of Honors at Iowa to do this.  

Butchart used her thesis knowledge and work to land an internship at the Democratic Progress Institute in London while she was studying diplomacy for her Masters at the London School of Economics. That experience, plus her UI education, set her up nicely for the internship at KRG, she says.

Duties at her internship included two daily reports among other tasks.

“One whittled down all the news on the Middle East into a neat digest, and the other recapped U.S. government statements for Kurdistan’s Council of Ministers,” she says. “I acted as receptionist, which meant greeting everyone from members of Congress to media representatives.”

Pursuing an honors thesis at Iowa and diving into two majors, plus a minor, was an effective way to utilize her love of writing and international relations.

“I love the relentless complexity of both writing and international relations: no two countries and no two writing projects are exactly the same, and I love the challenge to stay on my toes,” she says.

Her thesis didn’t just span across different departments and majors, but also to different colleges. While at the UI, Butchart took Introduction to Human Rights instructed by Brian Farrell, a lecturer in Law and Human Rights in the College of Law. She later approached him about advising her thesis, and he ended up serving as her mentor for the entire project.

“She was, and is, very interested in international and human rights issues,” he says. “She’s a hard worker and put a lot of effort into crafting a strong thesis…It’s gratifying to see a student’s work recognized and lead to opportunities in such a clear and direct manner, but you hope that’s the case every time – that the work is leading to good things whether they’re immediately apparent or not.”

Butchart says what she learned at the UI has been invaluable to her career, especially her writing skills.

“In every office I’ve worked in, there’s always been a writing task or two that no one else wants to do,” she says. “By becoming the go-to person, I’ve worked with projects and people I otherwise would’ve been unable to. In my internship at KRG, that meant editing a speech to the Senate and writing diplomatic remarks.”

While at the UI, she worked at the UI’s International Programs Department as the communications and relations intern. She also has fond memories of working as a stagehand at Hancher.

Now that her internship is over, she’s looking to continue her career in diplomacy or in a policy-related field, and can’t wait to see what’s in her future. 

“As cheesy as it sounds, there’s simply nothing I’d rather do,” she says.

—by Dora Grote (BA 2015)