Most U.S. diplomats are not chosen straight out of college.

Stephen Kochuba (senior-finance and international business) might be the exception.

Following graduation in May, Kochuba will join the U.S. State Department as a Foreign Service officer.

Kochuba and 25,000 other American citizens worldwide took the Foreign Service exam last fall. Of these, 3,000 were given personal interviews. Kochuba passed the exam and, after an intense 11-hour interview, he was offered a position as a Foreign Service officer, pending security clearance.

"I never thought I was going to pass. I was taking it more as a practice for the future," he said. "I was shocked when I got accepted."

Most of the people taking the test had graduate degrees from prestigious universities, he added.

He will go to Washington, D.C., for the official swearing in of the new class of Foreign Service officers, at which the president often presides, and he will undergo two months of training. He will then be sent overseas immediately or after 10 months of language training.

Although he may not have a graduate degree, Kochuba has international experience. He has traveled to several foreign countries, and he took advantage of Penn State's study abroad program last spring when he lived in Cologne, Germany.

Kochuba's international experiences, along with passing the Foreign Service test, have given him a great start toward his "dream career."

During Kochuba's freshman year at Penn State, he participated in a spring break project in Haiti. Project Haiti sent 40 students, including Kochuba, to the country last year.

"Haiti is a very poor country," he said, "but even worse than the poverty is the fact that the people feel they have been overlooked by the world and treated as if they were not human."

Justin English (senior-English) a companion on the trip, said that in Haiti, Kochuba was "such a positive person in a place that wasn't always positive. Stephen was fantastic with the kids; he got fully immersed in the people and in the culture of Haiti."

English remembered how Kochuba danced with Haitian nuns and played soccer with school children.

Last summer Kochuba was accepted as an intern in the state department and was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia.

"I was nervous about being affiliated with the American Embassy because I would be known as an employee of the U.S. Embassy; there is always the possibility to be a target," he said.

To prepare for his first time in a Muslim country, Kochuba went to a few Muslim Student Association meetings on campus.

During these meetings he met Saleh Al Amer (junior-chemical engineering) who helped him better understand the culture.

"Stephen taught me a lot," Al Amer said. "He taught me how to appreciate and respect other people's perspectives and to understand different viewpoints."

Kochuba learned things in Tunisia and Haiti that cannot be taught in the classroom, he said.

"My experience there has caused me to appreciate things in life and not take them for granted. America continues to be the greatest country in the world in terms of personal freedom, and I'm excited at the prospect of going to another county and sharing our culture," Kochuba said.