Prepping Tomorrow’s Diplomats

–Liberia FSI Gets Stimulus To Offer Full Degree

For more than six decades and counting, the Gabriel L. Dennis Foreign Service Institute has and continues to provide professional certifications for men and women either aspiring to be diplomats-or wanting to benefit from diplomatic trainings. And now, the institute has been given a stimulus to transform its Diploma courses in Diplomacy and Foreign Relations into Full Degree.

Education Minister Prof. D. Ansu Sonii in his proxy for President George M. Weah reminded graduates and faculty members of the 2019 class about the significance of the institute in helping Liberia reap the benefits of foreign relations and policies.

He recommended amongst others that a curriculum be developed which will qualify the Institute to operate as a College or a unit under a university that has the authority to confer degrees. Prof. Sonii, who also chairs the Board of the Commission on Higher Education- the entity responsible to accredit higher institutions of learning said he hopes the  idea be brought forward before he exists his role anytime in the future.

In his approbation of the graduates, Acting Foreign Minister Henry B. Fahnbulleh thanked Acting Director General of the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), Ambassador Remongar Dennis for his farsighted leadership. “We are encouraged by new developments here at the Foreign Service Institute and I want to say thank you. Students were exposed to practical knowledge of what they learned at the institute. And I also want to thank you Mr. Acting Director General for setting the pace for four students of the Foreign Service Institute to pay a learning visit to the Diplomatic School of the American University in Washington D.C USA”.

As Liberia premiere institution for training diplomats, he said the FSI has over the years trained hundreds of Liberians and foreigners in the field of diplomacy and International relations, many of whom are current and past ambassadors representing the interest of the country.

For his part, Ambassador Dennis, a career diplomat and Acting Director General assured that the institute is committed to ensuring the minds of students are developed to understanding more global issues and their challenges and how they can participate in finding lasting solution.

In this new direction, he said the institute will ensure that the required teaching and reading materials, new text books, periodicals, newspapers and magazines as well as adjustments to the new tools of teaching are available and adopted.

He said through the training, students were given the green light to go forth and undertake to understand more with broad minds and deep analysis with the view to contributing to the resolution of existing national and international problems.

“This class started off with 55 students out of which 46 are proudly graduating. I therefore, Mr. Acting Minister, present the graduates, on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs  for concurrence, that they be graduated from the Gabriel L. Dennis Foreign Service Institute”, he said.