PSU Magazine Spring 2001

one of the leading Middle East gradu– ate programs in the country. Today he is the director for the Middle East and North Africa program at the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service Institute in Virginia. "It was unbelievable," Bechtold says, "I was sitting in the same clas - room at Princeton with George Will and others-the Ivy Leaguers from the top East Coast schools. The reputation of Portland State' program paved the way for me. Even now I think Prince– ton looks at applications from student at PSU more favorably because of that program." ~e PSU Middle East Studies ! .Center attracted students who wanted more than an education in ordinary matters, says Mandaville. They came, in part, because they craved excitement, travel, and a larger window on the world, even if they couldn't put their finger exactly on what that might be. Carbone was one such young man. "I knew that I wanted to study lan– guage, and that I wanted to take some– thing outside of the usual European languages that everyone takes," he says. "I chose Arabic in part because it was so exotic." Upon graduation, although he had originally thought about going into business, Carbone applied for work with the government. The CIA came back with an offer he couldn't refuse. "All levels of government, not just the CIA," says Mandaville, "needed bright, knowledgeable people with international training: the Defense Department, the Department of Com– merce, the foreign services. Every– where, government agencies were screaming for people who spoke vari– ous languages, including Middle East– ern languages." Portland State became a feeder school for these agencies and for the pre tigious programs at Harvard and Princeton, which offered graduate work in the field." G ary Leiser '69 says he dre~med of pursuing great opportuniue . But, as a young man growing up in Portland, he found he really couldn't afford to go away to find them. He was