Interview by Paul Yoon
Raised next to the tides of the Pacific, Lily Ameika from Kamuela, Hawaii, graduated from Baylor University in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in International Studies. Living in an island state, along with her experience attending an international boarding school, has allowed her to develop a great passion for different languages and cultures from a young age. Her interest and exposure to such diverse cultures have helped solidify her decision to pursue her degree in International Studies as an undergrad. Lily says that Baylor’s emphasis on public service and the array of area studies courses offered first attracted her to Baylor’s IST program.
Willing to learn and engage with the international community, Lily was heavily involved in cultural organizations on campus, such as the Asian Student Association, Coalition of Asian Students, and Hawaii Club. As President of the Asian Student Association, Lily helped organize cultural events like Baylor’s annual Asian Fest and perform at Hawaii Club’s Lūʻau, promoting cultural awareness for Baylor’s Asian community and comradery.
Though a passionate IST major, Lily’s internship experiences at Baylor were most memorable and impactful to her decision to further her studies in graduate school. Lily first interned as a Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) media monitor intern for the U.S. embassy of Port Moresby, where she wrote reports on Papua New Guinea headline news and compared various press briefings to detect information discrepancies. Her second internship was with the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute over the summer in DC, where she aided Congress members and program directors with event management for Hill meetings on adoption and foster care policies. Proficient in Japanese, Lily virtually interned for the Minamisanriku 311 Memorial in Japan as a pamphlet translator during her final year at Baylor prior to attending graduate school. Lily’s internship experiences have been said to shape her desire to work for the government with her undergraduate degree.
Lily now studies Global Communication with a concentration in public diplomacy and national security at the George Washington University’s Elliott School. Baylor’s IST program and her internship experiences have deepened her love for communication and analyzing texts. At GW’s Elliot School, she finds the skills she’s developed in Baylor very useful as she continues to specialize and practice writing through the many policy-specific research papers she is and has been working on. After graduating from school, Lily hopes to enter public diplomacy, “working in some capacity of the government, whether it’d be the State Department, Capitol Hill.”
Lily’s advice to current undergraduate students seeking to attend graduate school in the near future is to “be open to any opportunities coming your way” and be willing to take on-campus positions or internships, even if it may initially seem intimidating. Lily emphasizes how her leadership roles and internship experiences have played a vital role in helping her identify what she wants to study and do in the future, thus encouraging others to do the same.
