To get into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and achieve her dream, Isabella Periotto took the foreign service exam twice. She earned her bachelor’s degree and then her master’s in 2007 at LUISS. She majored in International Relations, with a thesis on the United Nations with the support of Professor Silvio Fagiolo, then Ambassador of Italy in Berlin, who Isabella remembers as "a key figure in my education."
"My fondest memory of my university years,” says Isabella, “was the first day of class, Professor Pellicani’s Political Sociology class in the old Room 28 at the Viale Pola campus."
She was excited to begin an adventure that would then lead her to realize her greatest ambition: "LUISS certainly helped direct my career choice towards the foreign service exam. The material that I studied and the attention given to learning other languages encouraged my interest in international topics."
The usefulness of this training is confirmed by the high number of LUISS graduates that have passed the yearly exam at the ministry: over the past 10 years there have been 50 from LUISS, which is the university with the highest number of students that have passed the exam.
During the five years spent at our university, Isabella chose to go on an Erasmus program and was put to the test in various internship experiences, one of which was at the Permanent Mission of Italy to the International Organizations in Vienna.
Then she dedicated a year and a half to studying for the exams. After graduating, she went back to LUISS to attend seminars and stay abreast of new developments: "Watching students walk around the beautiful new campus at Viale Romania, I realized that I had grown."
In 2010 all of that studying and determination brought her to where she is now. After passing the difficult selection process at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she was hired to work in the administrative office of an undersecretary. Her ambition, she tells us, was inspired by "the desire to work for my country and to contribute to Italy’s value abroad. In addition, I’m curious to learn about other places."
When she took her first steps down the corridors of the Foreign Ministry, Isabella was "thrilled and very proud that I had accomplished my most important goal." And now, having reached this goal, she has her own special prescription: "You have to study hard and believe in yourself. Studying, determination, motivation and a bit of luck are the active ingredients you need to pass the foreign service exam. Good luck!"