UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN
Master Placement
Placement Report
Student: Kyratsa Poulidou Student number: S4045947
Programme: MA International Relations, International Security Placement provider: Consulate General of Greece in Boston Placement supervisor: Drs. C.A.M Wagstaff
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Prior to Placement 3
Practical aspects of the placement 4
Tasks and activities carried out during the placement 6
Covid-19 challenges 9
Personal learning objectives 11
Personal reflections on the placement 14
Introduction
This placement report provides a comprehensive overview of the Master’s placement that I have done at the Consulate General of Greece in Boston.
The first section of the report contains information on the practical aspects of the placement. The second section outlines in detail the tasks and activities that I have undertaken during the
placement, while the third section portrays the challenges I had to deal with during Covid-19 and the ways I dealt with them. In addition the fourth section of this report presents an account of my personal learning objectives and how I met them during the course of the placement. The fifth section describes my personal reflections on the learning process of the placement and finally the conclusion summarizes the main takeaways from my Master’s placement.
Prior to the Placement
Before starting to apply for internships back in December 2019, I knew what career path I
wanted to follow so I applied for a position in four different Greek Consulates in Europe and one in the USA, which I got an immediate response from. The process of planning my placement there was more complex, since I had to organize my life for three months in Boston,
Massachusetts, a different environment than a European country would offer me. It was a
challenge and I accepted it back in January 2020 when my supervisor and the General Consulate of Greece in Boston agreed on the final placement contract. In February I applied for the
Scholarship of Erasmus Marco Polo and was very satisfied when I received the acceptance letter back in March.
The reason why I chose to do my internship at the Consulate is because I have already done my internship at the Headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Greece before and I wanted to experience the Public and Everyday Diplomacy in the urban environment. The second
important reason is that my Master’s Thesis was examining the way Consulates are working and building a network of diplomacy and business in the regional and urban complexes.
Following there is a short description of my provider’s profile. The Consulate General of Greece in Boston is one with the best reputation as it is involved with Universities’ activities, such as Harvard, MIT, and Tufts, as well as the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The Consulate in Boston tries to create new events and integrate every possible information and situation in order to achieve an international cooperation, to enhance the education of the Greek community but also to understand and be involved in topics that are in demand. It is an updated Consulate that communicates with Boston and its entities, as well as with the citizens and exercises public diplomacy in every situation possible.
Practical aspects of the placement
I have started with my Master placement on June 1st, 2020 and completed the placement on 31st of August 31st, 2020 at my placement provider, the Consulate General of Greece in Boston. During the placement I have worked full time in total 640 working hours, plus the extra time I needed to assist due to upcoming issues related with Covid-19.
My placement provider, the Consulate General of Greece in Boston is the Mission of the Hellenic Republic in New England, U.S. It combines both the consular work and daily
communication with the public, but it also enforces diplomacy on behalf of the state and citizens with financial, security, humanitarian and historic entities in Boston, Massachusetts and
generally the United States of America. It was a new experience since I did not have any encounter with the professional working place of the U.S so far.
Through the daily schedule the Consulate aims at the Greek economy and culture abroad while ensuring the integrity and public image of the state in the U.S. It further explores a different network of communication in the periphery of Massachusetts, while strengthening its ties with
local authorities and entities at the level of integration and support of the Greek community mostly abroad.
My work during the placement at the General Consulate of Greece in Boston was centered on the new mechanism of addressing challenges in the period of the rising Covid-19 pandemic. I
followed the guidance of the General Consul on a series of issues regarding Energy Security, Neighbouring Policies, Bilateral and Trilateral relations and simultaneously I was involved with other officials in the Consular work which was 70% increased than prior to the pandemic. Within my duties I had, a new one was included regarding travel restrictions. One of the main responsibilities of mine was to issue travel certification for Greek and EU citizens travelling to Greece amid travel restrictions, which at the beginning was changing regularly and was charged of a huge amount of citizenship attestations for most of the month of July. I was monitoring every day the updates relating to the consequences of the pandemic as well as with the criteria of citizens allowed to travel to Greece and the EU.
The head of the Mission is Mr. Efthymiou who acted as my placement supervisor during the placement. However, during his vacation days, Mrs. Koukoutsi, the Vice Consul, the competent official for Citizenship matters was in charge of my duties, who helped me with the Emergency Response to the pandemic. Even though Mr. Efthymiou was away for a couple of weeks, I continued the research tasks he gave me.
For my work during the placement I have not received any financial compensation from the Consulate General of Greece in Boston, nor have eventually received any financial contributions from other sources. My expenses regarding the placement included the monthly transportation tickets, meals and accommodation were exclusively covered by my personal savings. Boston is known for its high standards of living and competitive professionals. While I have applied to the Erasmus Marco Polo’s scholarship in order to decently live in Boston, and while I was from 24th of May in Boston, in the United States of America, I received an email from Stagebureau on the 16th of June which stated that due to Covid -19 restrictions I was no more allowed to get my scholarship, but thankfully I continued with my placement, since I was eligible to obtain my ECTS. As a consequence, this caused a lot of troubles with my financial status, since the
placement and the accommodation settings were agreed back in January-February of 2020, but I did eventually overcome the obstacles.
My motivation for doing the placement at the Consulate General of Greece in Boston was based on my presumption to gain first-hand insight into workings of the integrating network of the professionals and the Public Diplomacy being exercised first in the urban setting and second at the regional and national level. By applying to this internship my main interests were to learn about the dynamics of international security from the institution I am very intrigued to start my career, but also from the aspect of a curious researcher to examine the complexity Boston offers and how the Consulate engages in international cooperation, and is integrated as a public
authority of Greece in the United States (US), as well as to attain the competence of applying the knowledge and skills gained during my studies in a professional setting.
I was decisive in looking to do a placement that would be more closely related to the track of my Master’s programme, International Security, and will be in a city and country that would offer me the opportunity to broaden my horizons, meet new cultures and mentalities, and experience some challenges that would help me with my professional profile.
Tasks and activities carried out during the placement
During the placement at the Consulate General of Greece in Boston, I was assigned mostly to the diplomatic tasks by Mr. Efthymiou and I had the opportunity to observe his work ways of
addressing problems in a diplomatic manner.
In accordance with my placement plan, the tasks and activities I have carried during my placement were:
- Familiarization with the principles of Consular work. One of the most important aspects of the Consular work is the daily contact and communication with the public. Audience
reception was important because I had to behave in a very diplomatic way in order to answer questions, problematizations, and facts. Organizing the daily agenda for the officials was one of my tasks as well. The challenge was to work on my communication and organizational skills as I had to inform the audience about the current situation, face people that were in need, panic, and anger due to the Covid-19 crisis.
- Contributing to the organization and participation in networking events of the Consulate or related events under the auspices of the Consulate. In my case, because of the
pandemic, the meetings and events were held online, so the preparation and participation was through the internet. A much different experience and very interesting topics arose as I had the chance to know and talk with Medical Professors and Specialists and experts regarding how the pandemic affects the society and thus the world. Among other countries, Greece is an example of dealing successfully with Covid-19, so there was a chance to promote and research new ideas and concepts which the Consul involved me through the process and finally the new policies were sent to the Hellenic Government.
- Assisting officials of the Authority within all the Sectors. I was most interested in passports and visas, as well in the section of citizenship. I was helping all the officials of the Consulate and got to experience a lot of different and variants of procedures I was not aware of in the section of legal, financial and military issues.
- Familiarization with the process of answering to all citizens regarding the insecure environment of travelling to the European Union (EU) and Greece. I needed to
familiarize everyday with the new regulations of its country and most importantly with the bilateral relations of Greece with other countries within or outside of the EU in order to responsibly state a fact and suggest to the audience what to do in each case.
- Work on the production of reports on trade, energy, security practices in the international environment, development policies and legal regulation concerning renewable energy and politics.
- Monitoring foreign press and statements in favour of the interests of the Consulate General.
- Familiarization in the section of translation official document. I worked on my writing and language skills throughout the placement, where I needed to translate documents, reaching the number of seventy five (75) documents of various interests and purposes for the audience.
- Production of research assignments which I was appointed to do in limited time and afterwards I had the chance to discuss with the Consul General about these issues. I also had a project until the end of my placement focusing on the Consul General’s Speech in 2021, a historic year for Greece’s Independence (200 years) which engage me in reading more about Greek diplomatic history, European history and individuals who acted as connection patterns from the U.S and specifically from Boston, MA.
- Work on the preparation of texts for the Information of Citizens about the changing regulations of Covid-19, at the EU level and the state level, both Greece and the US.
Per my placement plan, I was supposed to perform additional tasks regarding the
networking events happening at the Consulate General, but due to the new circumstances the pandemic introduced, safety and security of people and business was the priority for the Consulate General, which acted within limitations.
Covid-19 Challenges
In addition to the tasks and activities foreseen in the placement plan I have also carried out the following:
- Enhance the network within the Hellenic Authorities throughout the U.S. so as to set the common ground to respond to the emergency and rising pandemic. It further applied to several cases that needed special handling regarding the admission and assistance to people and communities.
- The new section added to my workload was issuing travel certifications to citizens eligible to travel, which with my evaluation I suggested the options and ways one could have been issued the certification or not. Every day the cases for travel certifications were reaching around two hundred (200) –sometimes more, around three hundred (300) – requests of travel certifications which at the beginning only myself and another official were in charge of, plus all the above mentioned tasks. Then since I was more familiar with the process of issuing citizenship attestations, three volunteers came to help with the heavy workload. I was appointed to be a “team leader” and guide them through the appropriate statements and websites and information so that the workload and time could be split. If any concern, question or difficulty rose I was advising them how to handle a situation according to the regulations. The Consulate was finally able to respond
immediately to the audience via email, regular mail, through the phone, and by coming in order to the Consulate and respecting the measures set for not spreading the Covid-19. - In the meantime the request for applying for passport appointments increased
dramatically, which led to my intensive training of the passport applications. I was taught everything the official was doing to complete the application in order to issue a new passport, which later brought me to the position of assisting a new official for this position.
- Another service the Consulate General of Boston provided is the citizenship section and Registrations- Declarations. Since a lot of U.S. citizens with Greek ancestors had family and favouritism feelings towards Greece, amidst the pandemic crisis, wanted to obtain Greek citizenship from their parents, grandparents, and some even great-great
grandparents, so as to become dual citizen and hold a EU/Greek passport which would secure their travelling and entrance to the EU and Greece this summer or generally to broaden their “freedom” in travelling. My duty was also to contact and communicate with these people and discuss their request and how they want to apply to obtain the Greek citizenship, which taught me more than expected. First of all, a citizenship application is a security issue, and when the Consulate General of Greece in Boston receives around four hundred (400) application during this summer it is of utmost importance to check in detail every request and eligible criteria. Being a part of this identity crisis taught me how to address the huge amount of applications as well as how to diplomatically trace the intentions and reactions of the people wanting to become Greek citizens as well. It was extremely interesting to see the value of the Greek passport, that secures the entrance to Greece of course and the EU rising straight away.
- The last task of mine as additional to those of my placement plan, included in the emergency response, was to assist the elderly population in the matter of service as it is the group of people with the highest risk of getting infected from Covid-19. The planning in the agenda and the quick responding to our elderly citizens were a priority and the Consulate made sure to be welcomed in a secure environment for their requests.
Personal learning objectives
In my placement plan I have listed several personal learning objectives I was looking to meet during the course of the placement at the Consulate General of Greece in Boston. After the completion of the placement, I can confidently say that I have met the majority of the listed personal learning objectives and made the maximum use of my time at the Consulate in order to gain first-hand insight into the Consular work and more importantly to the way diplomacy is exercised in Boston, a cosmopolitan city with a complex network of trade, humanitarian
activities and policies, as well as to put the knowledge and skills gained during my studies at the University of Groningen into practice and to attain first professional experience closely related to my professional interests.
My placement during the pandemic crisis was proven to be actually challenging and taught me a lot of things I will use for personal development as much as in my professional career. As I have mentioned in my first and middle report, the colleagues I surrounded myself with, were
extremely friendly and working as a team with them was successful in dealing with the Covid-19 challenges.
- In more detail, working with highly skilled officials in the sections of Citizenship, Passports, Diplomatic management helped me learn how to process new tasks under different perspectives from what I have been experiencing during my studies. The utmost importance was the citizenship process and the passport issuing I got to expertise because of one of my supervisors, Mrs. Maria Koukoutsi (Vice Consul). By her side I learned all the procedure, the details I need to pay attention to such a delicate security issue.
- I had the chance during this pandemic to apply my knowledge and experience and work in a limited timeline with deadlines and deal with high risk issues.
- Working in the international environment where diplomacy is conducted in a different manner than already experienced helped me broaden my horizons and set my standards for my hereafter professional career.
- I have learned to manage and evaluate an identity crisis, and with the guidance of the officials (Mrs. Koukoutsi, Mrs. Panagiotou, and Mrs. Kosmidou) to fully comprehend the significance of the Consular work in an urban network, Boston (MA) and moreover in the U.S.
- During my placement I learned the political, bureaucratic and security system of the US which added more value to the period of time I stayed in Boston, which helped me adjust to the new foreign working and living environment.
- Under the emergency response of Covid-19, teamwork and communication were strengthened much faster than expected since the officials of the Consulate and I, as a group, had to help each other in order to provide services to the public.
- Translations were another task of mine that helped me to (in combination with living in Boston) improve my English to achieve the working language level. I had the chance to get involved in military and security issues as well from a legal perspective but also advanced my knowledge on economic policies and the market of the US in relation with the EU.
- In addition, monitoring foreign press advanced my communication ability to write reports and communicate in Russian and German.
- I have learned how to work under pressure and multitask and while being tired or stressed to take every word and gesture of mine very seriously in behaving in a diplomatic
- I had the chance to continuously work on my international relations and security background while addressing citizenship applications and passports. I even got the chance to process a passport application myself.
- While assisting the officials of the Consulate to functional work during the pandemic, I took initiatives in order to enhance the organization and promptness of the Consulate that was very much appreciated. For example I organized the email platform we used so that every request will be issued by the competent official. In addition I organized the
translations, registrations, declarations and everything else that was afterwards suggested to sort paperwork and offer easy access so as not any problems would be caused.
- Furthermore, since the workload was undoubtedly huge, the Consulate welcomed some volunteers for dealing with the amount of requests every day. I was responsible for teaching them step by step how the Consulate was working and in case of difficulties I was assisting them as well in order to address some concerns, problems or demanding requests. This way of working helped me to change roles in the Consulate, from an intern to a team leader, from a diplomatic attaché to a researcher.
- The General Consul, Mr. Stratos Efthymiou helped me more with public diplomacy practices and energy security analysis, as I was interested in exploring both during my placement. The tasks he gave to me, even though I had to assist the officials and the public with a number of tasks, were challenging and taught me to handle sensitive issues under the pressure of time and professionalism. Academically, I pursued research in security issues concerning Greece’s foreign affairs and EU’s relations, as well as third countries' policies. This type of training gave the opportunity to be more confident in working as a professional in the sector of International Security I have studied.
Personal reflections on the placement
My overall impression of the placement I have done at the Consulate General of Greece in Boston is really good. I feel like the placement truly served its purpose of providing me with relevant work experience in a professional setting that has a clear international character, where I was able to put my academic knowledge and skills into practice and gain a personal learning experience that is greatly beneficial for my career aspirations.
I am very satisfied with the activities and tasks I have been working on during the placement. I believe they correspond well with my competencies and experience and although the pandemic created a lot of challenges, I never felt overwhelmed with the amount or the complexity of work I was assigned to. I feel like in terms of a learning experience and my professional development, I got the most out of the work at the Consulate.
This placement exceeded my initial expectations of both personal and professional development, in a way that has shaped me as a confident junior professional and prepared me for what is coming next in my career. Working with the people I did, on critical issues as crisis
management, countries’ strategies due to Covid-19 that changed day to day, offered me a great environment to work on my skills and learning to cope with people, state officials and ways I can only appreciate I had this opportunity.
Conclusion
This placement report offers a detailed account of the Master’s placement that I have done at the Consulate General of Greece in Boston. The report first gives a brief description of the practical aspects of the placement, such as the duration of the placement, the profile of my placement provider and the steps that led to this placement.
Secondly, the report lays out an overview of the tasks and activities carried out during the placement, detailing all the worth mentioning work that I have done. The third section presents my personal learning objectives that have been set before the placement and objectives I could not imagine this placement would offer me. The fourth section projects my personal reflections on the learning process of the placement, describing how I feel about the way the placement contributed as a personal experience to my professional development and further career aspirations.
To sum up the report, I am very pleased with the way the placement went and how it served its purpose. I am very satisfied with the way I was able to carry out the tasks, especially during the pandemic crisis and how I contributed to the Consulate General and its functionality during these three months. My workload was challenging, exactly what I was looking for my Master’s
placement. If I need to highlight one of the tasks I was assigned, that would be the passport and citizenship applications and their process. It demands delicate work and attention to every detail and I got to know another aspect of security issues from first-hand experience. Citizenship and passports inspired me for my next article I want to publish after my graduation.
My co-workers were really satisfied with my work and attitude towards them that they wanted to suggest to the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs to open a competition process so as to
