Our leaders have been hearing about how we’d have “something big” coming today.

That was an understatement: We have four big things. Four opportunities to learn, to develop their professional skills, and to make their chapters even better.

ONE

We’re continuing our expert conference call series with one of the biggest names in foreign policy. Soon, our chapters will be able to speak with Stephen M. Walt. Professor Walt is a leading international relations theorist, a weekly columnist at Foreign Policy, and author of several well-known books on foreign affairs. He’ll speak to us about his new book, The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy, and there will be plenty of time for Q&A.

TWO

We’ve got a new opportunity for you to build your professional skills, gain leadership experience beyond your campus, and help the Society impact more people. Apply for our new student ambassador program. If selected, you’ll become the Society’s face on new campuses. We’ll train you in effective outreach techniques, messaging, and organizing skills so that you can help the Society grow. You and your fellow ambassadors will form a core team, working closely with our regional directors. Successful ambassadors will receive incentives, including a slot at our summer leadership conference. And, of course, we’d know our student ambassadors better and will therefore be able to provide more tailored career development.

The program is not a massive commitment: each student ambassador would be expected to bring in two new, active chapters each semester. Apply here.

THREE

We’ve made it easier to have a great chapter meeting. We’ve added five new discussion modules. Each one is designed to help you put on a solid, engaging, rigorous discussion of current issues in foreign policy. They include articles that can bring your members fresh and challenging perspectives, scholarly depth, and questions that can help you focus the conversation on the most critical points. We’ve simplified the format from our original modules, too. Special thanks to our La Salle University chapter for testing one of the new modules out last week! The new modules can all be found on the module page of our website. They include:

• U.S.-Russia relations
• U.S.-China relations – is conflict inevitable?
• Iran, Saudi Arabia, and America’s Gulf strategy
• Mercenaries and the rise of “violence management”
• The new progressive debate on foreign policy (a module adapted from the first meeting of the new Strategy Reading Group we’ve assembled in DC)

FOUR

Want to take your chapter’s recruitment efforts to the next level? Starting this Spring, eligible chapters will have the opportunity to receive an official recruiting kit! This kit will be filled with JQAS swag, palm cards, and all the tools you need to impress your classmates. We’re still building out the kit, so if there is a certain item you think should be included, please email our Southern Regional Director, John Goodnight at john.goodnight@jqas.org.

If your campus doesn’t have a chapter of the Society yet, let us know – we’ll help you build one. To help more students have opportunities like these, you can support the Society here.