The Day the U.S. Secretary of State Came to Visit

We were notified by USAP to keep this date open (May 22) because all hands would be needed on deck. Everyone was pretty sure we knew who was going to make an appearance and when they finally officially emailed us the itinerary, our suspicions were confirmed.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

She, along with some top CEOs from our sponsors, would be coming to USAP for a sort of “honor day” for their (financial) contributions to the construction and running of USAP. Without our sponsors we would have no USAP today.

All SAs were assigned roles for the big day. We were mainly being used for crowd control because we were going to allow in about 200 regular Chinese guests when she went through to view the pavilion. As one of the consulate people said, we were to be “a pocket of happiness that would follow the Chinese people and keep them away from Hilary Clinton.” Free bodyguards maybe?

I was assigned the role as one of the “puller at front of public.” My job was to get the Chinese crowd to follow me as we moved from room to room. 过来！ 过来！ 跟我走！ As my group “pulled”, SAs followed the crowd of Chinese people and “pushed.” Once we got to each room, SAs who were “seat holders” would stand up once Sec. of State Clinton’s group got in and move to the side so that they could sit down. This repeated itself through the entire pavilion. Things all went smoothly, but it sucked for the few SAs who were assigned to work outside as everyone else was working inside. Those working outside were asked to hold the crowds for a long time since they didn’t want anyone else inside the pavilion at the time (for security reasons). Add to all this, it was raining outside. Needless to say, those who were stuck waiting outside were not too happy.

Pretty soon, the show was over and things were back to normal at USAP. I did get a glimpse of her; she was wearing a light blue overcoat.

Later that night, SAs and USAP staff had the opportunity to take a photo with her. She gave the SAs the most face time and congratulated us and acknowledged us for the work we were doing at USAP. It was definitely nice to hear her praise for us because it showed us that hey, some people do care about the SAs. She was kind enough to go around and asked each one of us to introduce ourselves and say where we’re from. She even took the time to answer some questions. The transcript of the conversation is online.

Pretty awesome right? Meet Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and be able to forever say that I said some words to her. It was all very brief and very fast, but it will be one of the highlights of my summer at the Expo!

Oh, and she looks way better in person. All the SAs kept saying over and over how good she looked for her age ... the show in USAP’s Act 1 makes her look so old and tired.

Photo of first session Student Ambassadors with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and USA Pavilion Commissioner General Jose Villareal