Growing up at international boarding schools in both Switzerland and England, Sarah Fitzpatrick was no stranger to foreign service. Many of her classmates’ parents were diplomats, so when it was time to go to college, she choose the Elliott School of International Affairs, hoping to one day become a diplomat herself.

But when she first got to GW and took an international affairs course, she quickly realized she would rather have a job that dealt directly with people.

“I didn’t want to spend my life talking about nuclear war,” she said. “Lots of politics is based on how people perceive each other, which is more important to me.”

For her major, she chose a concentration in contemporary cultures and society – an anthropological focus – because she enjoys studying how people interact, she said.

During her sophomore year, Fitzpatrick took an internship with Reporters without Borders and began to develop her first insight into press freedom, working many times with journalists who were already in or about to be in foreign prisons.

Fitzpatrick’s work with journalists did not end her in sophomore year. During her junior year, she interned at CBS in the Washington Bureau and was sent undercover to report on stories like a televangelist healing event in Virginia. In her senior year, she continued to work at CBS, becoming involved in this fall’s election coverage and was lead news anchor Katie Couric’s production assistant during this year’s inauguration coverage.

In her second semester of junior year, Fitzpatrick took her interest in foreign cultures to a new level.

“I took an Asian anthropology course about their culture and one morning I just woke up and said ‘Okay, I’m going to live in China,'” she said.

After graduation Fitzpatrick will find herself at Columbia University’s school of journalism. Though she didn’t start out with an interest in journalism, Fitzpatrick said she feels very prepared.

“There is a huge asset to being an Elliott student and not just a journalism major. I can hit the ground running and understand the international issues and players involved.”