This Nurse Can Be a US Diplomat- Ep. 20
Acquania Escarne is a financial coach, freelance writer, and life insurance agent committed to helping people find financial freedom and build generational wealth. As a financial coach, she equips her clients with "outside the box" finance tips people can incorporate in their daily lives in order to meet and exceed their financial and personal goals. Her coaching is individually tailored to address all financial situations. Also, through her website, The Purpose of Money, she shows women how to invest and save more so they can live a more fulfilling and prosperous life.
Contact Acquania:
Website, Instagram, Twitter
State Department info:
The State Department will be hiring for NPs and Physician's assistants from December 4-17, 2019. To apply, visit usajobs.gov It helps to start your profile now so when the job opens you can submit your application early.
To learn more about opportunities at the State Department visit careers.state.gov or download the app DOS Careers.
To watch videos about life as a Medical Specialist in the Foreign Service visit https://careers.state.gov/learn/who-we-are/videos/ Look for -->Foreign Service Specialists ---> Click on Regional Medical Officer videos
For more info on the fellowships check out these sites. They pay towards a masters degree:
Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship: https://pickeringfellowship.org/
Charles Rangel Fellowship: http://rangelprogram.org/
Payne Fellowship: https://www.paynefellows.org/graduate-fellowship-program/payne-program-overview/
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema McElroy (04:56): I am super honored to be able to welcome one of my good friends Acquania Escarne to the Nurses On Fire Podcast. Hey Acquania.
Acquania Escarne (05:07): Hey Naseema. How are you doing?
Naseema McElroy (05:07): I'm awesome. Thank you. How are you?
Acquania Escarne (05:11): I'm great, thanks for having me. I'm excited to talk about my story and share it with Nurses On Fire.
Naseema McElroy (05:18): I'm excited to have you here, too, because you have an amazing story. So let's just hop in and tell everybody what you're all about.
Acquania Escarne (05:26): Okay, awesome. So I am a US diplomat who works for the US Department of State. I've had the opportunity to serve the US Overseas in several countries, including Haiti, United Arab Emirates and Ecuador, as well as work on foreign policy in the US. And when I'm not supporting world peace, I am also helping women pursue financial independence through my blog, thepurposeofmoney.com, where I share money tips and tricks on how to really manage your money and build generational wealth.
Naseema McElroy (06:04): And that's awesome. And I'm not ashamed to say that Acquania is responsible for helping me with my platform as well. So I appreciate you for that. But Acquania, let's go back. And before we talk about working abroad and being a nurse, I want to learn how you were able to basically go to school for free and how you entered into being a US Diplomat.
Acquania Escarne (06:29): Okay. No, sure. It's a great story. At least I think so.
Naseema McElroy (06:32): I think so, too.
Acquania Escarne (06:34): So I have to admit, I was an undergrad student who pursued a passion for international affairs and went to one of the most expensive schools at that time, George Washington University. I grew up in Georgia and my mom at that time wanted me to stay home because there were local scholarship opportunities. But I knew, to really get into foreign affairs, you needed to be where the magic happens which is in Washington DC or at schools that have really good programs. So my first two years of undergrad, I actually worked two jobs and I went to school full time in order to afford my education. And my mom helped as much as she could, but I also spent two years looking for scholarships and it was my pursuit for money. And my second year where I discovered the Thomas R. Pickering fellowship, which is a fellowship program that helps individuals of financial need and diverse backgrounds find a career in the foreign service or foreign affairs fields, but in exchange for five years of service, I was able to get some of my education paid for and that's how I was also led to a career in the foreign service.
Acquania Escarne (07:52): One of the things I didn't know at that time when I went to school was that to be a US diplomat, you really didn't need to have family connections or deep pockets or some type of political relationship. You really just needed to have an interest in serving your country and being willing to take the exam. But finding the fellowship also allowed me to get a master's degree, which the US government helped me pay for. The Thomas R. Pickering fellowship still exists and now it's actually expanded to include the Wrangle fellowship, which is named after Wrangle, who served in Congress for several terms and the Pain fellowship, which is to help individuals more interested in US development in foreign countries abroad with the US agency for international development. So you have three options that you can kind of pursue and still leads to a diplomatic career and a paid master's degree.
Naseema McElroy (08:49): So they paid for just your master's degree or your undergrad and your master's degree?
Acquania Escarne (08:54): So I was lucky they also paid for some of my undergrad studies, but they have since made modifications to the fellowship. So now if you are to apply, they only cover a master's degree. But at the time that I applied, I got my junior and senior year of undergrad paid for and one year of grad school. And then my second year of grad school was a combination of loans and support from my graduate institution, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. So it was not completely free, but it has significantly reduced debt for me. I have to admit, I graduated with a master's and undergrad debt about $25,000 total compared to some people taking on that much debt per year. So I'm very, very fortunate and I know that. But that was one of the benefits to finding this scholarship when I did is being able to have three years of school paid for.
Naseema McElroy (09:52): Yeah. Actually when I was in college, a year was $25,000. And that was what, almost 20 years ago. I can only imagine how much college is now per year, especially at some of our top institutions. So I mean even though you didn't get everything paid for, that was a major, major come up in. So wow, I love that the program still exists even though it's a little bit different, but it's still a major discount. And you're basically guaranteed a job, correct?
Acquania Escarne (10:22): Yes, that is correct. It's sort of like, "we'll give you the money now, but you have to come work for us later". And that's amazing too because I graduated grad school in 2007 and some of my colleagues were looking for work and really couldn't find it, and then 2008 it was almost impossible for some of us who had significant graduate degrees and debt to find good jobs. But I was able to graduate and go straight into the foreign service in January of 2008. I knew I had a career, I had full salary and benefits waiting for me. I just basically had to provide proof that I graduated and completed my studies. And then also I was able to do an internship with the state department as well. So I ended up going to Ecuador to work in an embassy, which I thought was awesome too because you got to kind of practice and experience the culture before you signed on full time.
Naseema McElroy (11:22): That's awesome. So not only are you coming out of grad school during a recession, basically, with a job that has great pay and excellent benefits, but now you're able to travel the world with that job. I mean, it's winning. Often times, I think like programs like that, and I know for nurses it's kind of like if I was to do something like that, I would have to take a significant pay cut as kind of like an equipment that you know, I was kind of like giving back, you know what I'm saying? So you are through in school, so now you basically work almost for free. Your program wasn't like that though, right? You like you had a full like regular diplomat salary.
Acquania Escarne (12:07): Yes. So the good news is once you've graduated and you come on-board, you still have to take the test that everyone else takes. But you come on-board as a regular employee. They look at your education and the fact that you have a master's degree, you actually qualify for a higher salary. So it's like a win-win. You win twice and when you come on-board, they will also take in consideration any other experience you may have had. So I was unique in that I went straight from undergrad to graduate school. So I didn't have a lot of work experience. But I did have some. But now a lot of the fellows end up taking a break in between the two study. So they have work experience, they have a lot of other value that they can add to the diplomatic corps because of that experience. So they compensate you based on a lot of that information, your education, your experience and what you're bringing to the table.
Naseema McElroy (13:06): That's awesome. It is like win, win, win,a whole bunch of wins. And so I'm gonna post, if you don't mind sharing the links, I'm gonna post links to that in the show notes if somebody is willing or interested in pursuing that. Let's hop into talking about what kind of jobs the nurses could get in this program.
Acquania Escarne (13:27): Absolutely. So one of the cool things about the State Department is we pretty much hire everybody. Some people in my class studied Science and Math and Technology, English, and now we also have medical professionals that we hire as well. And so we have select times of the year where we recruit for nurse practitioners and physician's assistants. Our next opening is actually coming up. It's in December, December 4 to December 17 2019. They're going to put out an opening on USA jobs where you can submit your application and proof of your eligibility. In order to be a qualified candidate, you have to have five to seven years of full time primary care experience and it has to be recent. So if you did it 10 years ago, you're not eligible. But if you're doing it right now or you did it within the last couple of years and you've consistently been in your field and you're up to speed on the training, you qualify.
Acquania Escarne (14:34): And the really cool thing about this is you can use your skills as a nurse practitioner or a physician's assistant to live abroad. You essentially come on board and you serve at our embassies and consulates overseas, helping employees who are at the mission navigate local medical services support and whatever medical needs that they have. Because when you move overseas, we still try to provide you top medical care support for you and your family members. And then, you know, life happens as well. So sometimes your skills are needed to help navigate current medical situations that may not have been expected. So we recruit for medical providers to fill those needs to staff our embassies and consulates to help navigate local medical situations and to guide our families. The opportunity is really amazing because you get the same benefits as everyone else. So I go overseas and I focus on logistics and foreign policy, but our nurse practitioners will focus on medical care, but we all get housing provided for by the federal government.
Acquania Escarne (15:49): We get our salaries, we get our utilities and other needs in your home provided for. If you have children who are school age, they get education at some of the best private schools in the country where you're serving. And then you get other support too, if you have family members who want to travel with you, a spouse for example, we try to help provide employment for spouses as well. So on our website, careers.state.gov, there's actually some live videos where you can hear from some of our medical specialists and providers and their experiences working overseas.
Naseema McElroy (16:28): Wow, that's amazing. So I don't want anybody to skip over all the opportunity. But no, that's good information. And then also you gave a great resource for people to go to our careers.state.gov to look at videos to see. But yeah, what I want to talk about next is like, okay, let me clarify one thing before I make an assumption. So when you're working abroad, you basically get the same salary that you would get in the States?
Acquania Escarne (17:03): Yes. So everything is US based, so unfortunately that includes taxes. If you're in a foreign service, you still have a state that you claim as your home, so you get the benefits accordingly. For example, we have people from Florida, Texas, New York, California. If you're in a state that has tax-free income status or tax-free, if you're away for a certain amount of time. So mostly I know Florida, there's no income tax. Texas, there's no income tax. California, there's no income tax if you're abroad for a certain amount of days a year. And New York is the same way. So you claim whatever state you're from. If you happen to be from one of those States, you get those tax benefits. Unfortunately, I'm a Virginia resident, so Virginia always gets their money, but I get to get my US salary and then we have some other benefits too on top of your base salary, depending on where you choose to serve, there's additional benefits. If you go to a danger place, you're going to get paid more for that. If you go to a country that doesn't have the same living standards as the US, you're going to get paid more for that and those are called differential and hardship pay. But then we also have cost of living allowances, which means if you go to an extremely expensive countries, say in Europe for example, or even when I was in Dubai, they give you a percentage of additional income to help you support your expenses in a more expensive place. So there's a lot of opportunities to make more money in addition to your base salary. It just all depends on where you choose to serve.
Naseema McElroy (18:46): But what's important is that you're making this money, but yet your housing costs are covered, your kid's education are covered. And that easily a chunk of what you're gonna spend your take home pay on any day. And so being able to work in this capacity abroad allows you to rapidly accelerate your path to financial independence if that's what you're aspiring to. And that's why I wanted to share this as an opportunity because basically all you have to do with your money is stack. Like even if you wanted.
Acquania Escarne (19:28): Yeah. So, it still requires discipline. Now I have to be honest, because you can fall into the trap of, well I have all this disposable income, let me travel all the time, let me buy everything I ever wanted because I don't have any bills. But we have quite a few people to be honest, we have an amazing retirement system. So our retirement plan is, the thrift savings plan, it's similar to the military and other federal government agencies. So you can max that out if you so choose. Then we also still get a pension, which is unheard of for a lot of companies. But we get a pension if you do 20 years of service or you're at least 50 years old. So as an addition to whatever you save in your retirement account. And that's in addition to social security. So we have three legs of money that we can eventually tap into.
Acquania Escarne (20:19): But we have a lot of people in the foreign service who choose to invest in real estate. They have homes that they leave, but they rent them out while they're gone. In addition to the fact that they're not paying for housing when they're gone. So stocks, you know there are other ways to invest your money and part of that can include travel as well. I have to admit, you know, I've been to 37 countries now and I definitely take advantage of when I'm living overseas to travel. But I also take advantage of the extra income I have to do investments as well.
Naseema McElroy (20:54): How was it for you to travel abroad with your family?
Acquania Escarne (20:57): Awesome. So, everyone is different and you have to know what your family is capable of. But in my family, we chose countries based on where we wanted to be, where we thought we would thrive the best.
Acquania Escarne (21:11): And my husband is in the private sector, so I also needed to go somewhere where he could work. But so far it has worked out really well. And even in Dubai, which is quite expensive, we were able to save a significant amount of money because we maintained a two-income household. But in Haiti, for example, my husband like commuted every other month and we kind of saw each other in Miami, DC or in Haiti because his job wasn't in Haiti, but I was also making more money to live in Haiti. So we had additional income that could support us commuting every other month to see each other. So that worked out really well. And my kids who have grown in this up in this lifestyle are still pretty young. My oldest, we went to Dubai when he was 22 months, so he just knew about being near mom and dad and that's all that mattered.
Acquania Escarne (22:04): Unfortunately, he doesn't really remember living in Dubai for three years, but I'm gonna try to go overseas again. So that'll be something as more, you know, in his mind, my youngest is the same, like he's six, he just wants to be around mom and dad, but he was born in Dubai, so he has that special story that you know, he can share as well. But so far it has worked out. I think the biggest thing to worry about is too many visitors. I got like 30 visitors in Dubai. So if you go to the right place, you will see more than enough of your family.
Naseema McElroy (22:39): And whether that's a good thing or not, you know, is to be debated. That's cool, though. But I think that is amazing that your kids get this opportunity to see different parts of the world, even though they're still relatively young and they might not remember, but you have the opportunity to relocate to a different country pretty often. Like how often do those opportunities present themselves?
Acquania Escarne (23:06): So we rotate about every two to three years depending on where you are living and working. And that's I think is the perfect amount of time. It gives you enough time to move, settle in, get used to where you are, get the job down and then move on. So you have the opportunity to impact some change, but you don't get too comfortable that you lose your knack for innovation and freshness. And we are kind of like the military in that you know where you're going a year before you leave. So you're preparing your family, you're preparing yourself, and then when you come to Washington DC you can stay here up to six years. Right now that's the rule. So I've actually been back in DC since 2015 but I can stay here until 2021.
Naseema McElroy (23:55): Nice. Okay. But that's only if you are in DC, because that's where all the government is.
Acquania Escarne (24:00): Right. But if you want to go from one country to another country, you totally can. We have people who do that and they'll tend to spend two years at the first two places they go to and then three years every other place after that unless it's a more difficult place to live because the harder it is to live there, the shorter the tour of duty. So we have some places, they are limited, but the tour duty is only one year for example. And that's Afghanistan and some of our Pakistan tours and Sudan for example. But then you'll have other places where two years or three years is the minimum.
Naseema McElroy (24:37): And when I was interviewing Rich Journey, so Our Rich Journey, so Amon and Christina, they tell me something that made me like want to move like tomorrow. They told me that some company or some jobs will come and actually pack up your house and then unpacking where you're going. Is that true?
Acquania Escarne (24:58): That is exactly what we do. And the government does it. Private sector does it, you know, my husband's job is a global company and if I didn't have this benefit, we could use it through him too. Because when we worked in Dubai together, he basically moved with me and worked at their office in Dubai. But if I didn't have the moving privileges, they would have paid. So that's absolutely how it works. And that's honestly I can't move any other way. Like when I think about college and how you use some move dorms every year and you'd get all your friends together to help you and you're trying to borrow a car like that is just not the way to do it. When you move for the state department, you will never move the same way again. They hire companies, they come do a pack out survey, they pack up all your things for you in front of you, safely, make sure they are going to be transported well.
Acquania Escarne (25:55): And then when they get to wherever you're going, they sit and unpack all the boxes too. Take the paper, take the boxes with them. So you can literally move very smoothly if you want to. But then there are some people who, you know, they're control freaks and they like to manage the process a little too much, but you do have the option to utilize the movers to do everything.
Naseema McElroy (26:18): Wow. I just have so much PTSD from like all the moves that I've had in the last couple of years. Like that would be a serious barrier for me to try to take a job abroad. Like the thought of having to move and pack. I'm like, Oh yeah, that would hold me up. But I mean like just hearing that I was like, okay, I'm going. You've convinced me. I want to leave like tomorrow. And so I think that there's so many opportunities.
Naseema McElroy (26:44): So for this particular opportunity you're talking about, it's specifically for nurse practitioners and physician's assistants.
Acquania Escarne (26:52): Physician's assistants. But that's just this cycle. So we have psychiatrist. We also, if you have any doctors listening, we do hired mostly general practitioners because they like people who have a range of skills so they can be kind of applied in any environment and do well. But the opening for the medical provider MD background is opening up later in 2020.
Naseema McElroy (27:18): Okay. So just right now, do you guys ever just take straight up RN, just registered nurses?
Acquania Escarne (27:23): Not right now, but there is a possibility that they'll open it up depending on the needs of the service and what we're missing. We have a couple of positions in Washington, DC where they have nurses that staff our medical facility that helps with medical clearances and support in the US but those are split between contractors and civil service positions, which is another way to work for the government. But you don't travel as often as those in a diplomatic corps.
Naseema McElroy (27:54): Got you. But there is still opportunity out there. Yes?
Acquania Escarne (27:59): Yes. There's always an opportunity. A knock on that door.
Naseema McElroy (28:03): Yes. But for somebody, like say for example, somebody wasn't a nurse or maybe was a nurse and wanted to go back to graduate school to be a diplomat, they can go through this program and then work like you do to work on policies and different things in these countries. Right?
Acquania Escarne (28:24): Okay. Absolutely. And you don't even need to go through the fellowship. You don't have to have a master's degree. So let me be clear. I want everyone to hear this. In order to be a US diplomat, the only requirement by law is that you're an American citizen. You're at least 21 years old and you pass the test. That's it. There is no like you must have a master's degree, you must be a genius. No. 21 years old, American citizen, pass the exam. And so careers.state.gov is actually a really useful resource because one we have more information to help you understand the test process because it is multiple parts. Part of it is a written exam, was not even written anymore, we just call it that, but it's on a computer and it's kind of like the GRE, part of it is essays that you write and part of it is a oral interview where in person they talk to you and learn more about you and how you would be a good fit or whether or not you wouldn't be a good fit. The citizenship doesn't have to be born in US, you can be a naturalized citizen. That's mostly related to the fact that you are serving the US government, so you have to be able to obtain a security clearance.
Acquania Escarne (29:38): So citizenship is a requirement, but dual citizenship is not something that will prohibit you. We have individuals who may be they're from the Bahamas, maybe they're from Jamaica, and they want to maintain those citizenships in addition to their American citizenship. You can do that. And then the other factor is it helps if you have a background in foreign affairs. But again, English, Science, pretty much anything. We do have a lot of lawyers, most people who join the foreign service, it's their second career. They're at least 31 years old, but we hire up until 59 and a half. So you can literally do whatever your heart desires. Retire from now or decide you want to have a change in your path and then come on-board and become a part of the diplomatic corps. And that is always available to you. And so you'll see we have a diverse corps that more and more is reflective of the US culturally, ethically, but also age wise.
Acquania Escarne (30:44): And we have diversity in who represents America overseas. And so those are the requirements. And if you're really interested, we also have an app, "DOS Careers". It's an app you can download, tells you more about the foreign service, the civil service and has practiced test questions so you can sort of get a sense of what types of questions they asked on the test and whether or not you want to study for.
Naseema McElroy (31:07): Give you guys a little bit of a perspective of what kind of people work for the state department. So Amon and Christina, like I said, from "Our Rich Journey", who are on a past episode. Amon was a civil service like out of college. And then Christina was a lawyer who then went back to work in civil service. So you know, coming from totally different backgrounds, but basically, I think that they even worked in the same office.
Naseema McElroy (31:30): So, you know there's just so much potential and wide array of things that you can do working in the state department, department of state, or whatever you say.
Acquania Escarne (31:42): Yeah, it's okay. You know, it's funny. People say different things and sometimes they don't even know where it is. I get a lot of people who ask me, well, what state do you work for? And I say the US Department of State. And fortunately in the last couple of years we've had a lot more well known secretaries of state such as Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice. So we're finally starting to sort of get people's attention and "Madam Secretary", a series, actually ending the season, kind of helped as well. But I have to admit, we're still working hard on branding and getting people to understand like US Department of States, a federal agency, we do foreign policy and we're here. These are job opportunities that you can pursue. So I appreciate you sharing this information with your audience and you know, making sure that they know they can use their nursing skills abroad and save money and experience the world.
Naseema McElroy (32:49): And I love that you said that you still have to do it with intention though because it's easy though to blow that money. So yeah. Thank you for stating that. But Acquania, how can people reach out to you, learn more about "The Purpose Of Money" or your RRD Investments? How can people get in contact with you?
Acquania Escarne (33:09): I am on Instagram @ThePurposeOfMoney. I'm also on Twitter "@purpose_money" and my website, ThePurposeOfMoney.com. Check me out. I'm putting tips every day on social media to help you navigate and writing blogs that tell my story and those of other women building wealth. So check it out and I look forward to hearing from some of you on Instagram and on my website, you can contact me. I'm very responsive to those who are interested in the purpose of money or in the state department. I am an advocate for helping more people know about this opportunity, especially women and people of color. So feel free to reach out to me if you're interested.
Naseema McElroy (33:52): Thank you so much for all your wonderful information, Acquania.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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