Student Spotlight: Rand Duarte

My family is from Texas, but I grew up mainly in southern Maryland, where my dad, a Naval officer, was stationed. When I was eight years old, my family moved to Italy, where my dad was relocated, and I began learning Italian and, eventually, developed my passion for IR. 

As a military kid, I’ve been fortunate to travel to a number of countries, including Greece, Germany, France, and Spain, thanks to a military perk called Space Available, which allows military families to fly for free when military planes have extra space. Traveling Space Available was always a gamble, as we never knew whether we would get on a flight and, if we actually got to our destination, whether we would be able to get back home again. Sometimes this meant hanging out at Ramstein Air Base in Germany for a few days or exploring Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily or making friends with the military retirees, troops deploying, or other families on vacation all waiting to get on flights. The transportation was also unusual as it's not an average commercial aircraft. We flew mostly in cargo planes, large grey behemoths with crates strapped in the middle and canvas seats folding down along the sides that the passengers strapped into. One of my most memorable experiences was getting to sit in the cockpit of a giant C-17 military transport plane as it landed – it was such a good view coming into Andrew Air Force Base at night and was really cool to be able to listen to the pilot speaking to everyone on his headset. While it's tough to be a military kid sometimes, I am really grateful to have had experiences such as this during my childhood!

Given my military family background, it seems almost natural that, in my senior year as an IR major at Stanford, I find myself working amidst giant stacks of military history books in a Hoover Tower office as a research assistant for Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, US Army (Ret.). A lot of the books have personal letters inside saying things like “To H.R., Thank you for your service,” so it’s pretty neat. I’m part of a team of students assisting Lt. Gen. McMaster with the research and writing of his own forthcoming book, Battlegrounds. I'm working on the book's introduction, which is exciting as I get to focus on a broad range of topics, such as America's role in the world, the foreign policies of past U.S. presidents, and emerging technologies. I am really interested in working in the government after graduation and have interned at the Pentagon and the State Department’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau. The Research Assistant position has helped me tie together these experiences and allowed me to work with and get to know high-profile faculty. I highly recommend it for IR majors!