There are thousands of universities and colleges across the United States that offer courses to train the next generation of foreign service and international development professionals. With the job market somewhat depleted by the recent dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, many are unsure what it means for those courses and the students relying on them.
“If you had a school or a program that was traditionally an aid feeder, who and what is that program for now? Why would anyone hand you $250,000 to do that?” asked Colin Steele, an alumni career coach at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. “That's an admissions question, a communications question, an alumni relations question, a career services question. At the end of the day it's also a faculty question. Who are we attracting, what are we teaching them, and what are we promising them?”
A total of over 9,500 USAID staff are expected to lose their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle the agency and merge some of its functions into the State Department. Additionally, with the withdrawal of USAID funding from over 80% of its projects, many USAID recipient organizations, including Mercy Corps and the International Rescue Committee, have also had to lay off staff around the world.