Aloha from Hawaii!
About the author: Jenny Forro’20 is an FSI Global Policy Intern at the United States Indo-Pacific Command in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is currently Political Science major at Stanford University.
My name is Jenny Forro, I am an incoming senior in the Political Science department, and am currently on Oahu completing FSI’s USINDOPACOM internship. INDOPACOM, which stands for Indo-Pacific Command, is the headquarters for the U.S military in the Indo-Pacific region and is a unified combatant command. This is a huge geographic region and spans from the Antarctic to the Arctic and the west coast of the U.S to the western shores of India, meaning that the work that goes on in the command is very diverse. That is where my team comes in. I am on the Command Synchronization Team, a small group that was stood up only a few months ago and reports directly to the Chief of Staff. We facilitate cooperation between the staff sections of the command to ensure strategy and messaging are driving operations, which means that I receive a unique overview of most of the on-goings in each directorate. I get to peek in to the work of each military branch, the intelligence directorate, operations, strategy, information operations, State Department foreign policy, and public affairs, among other capabilities. If you are interested in more of my day to day work, and how my team works to lead strategic communication between each of those sections, stay tuned for my next blog post!
Conveniently for me, INDOPACOM is based near Honolulu on the island of Oahu. While work is extremely important and time relevant it is also quite taxing. However, my roommate Carter (who’s blog post you can also find on this site) and I make sure to have plenty of fun in our free time and utilize all that Hawaii has to offer. People here say that the amenities like the beaches and hikes are part of the high rent prices so you have to make sure to take advantage of them. I am a huge fan of beaches and Oahu has plenty of them to go around. The intern routine is to get to a new beach, lie in the sun until it becomes too hot, and then spend hours in the water jumping in waves and body surfing. How we act at work, analyzing critical foreign affairs like the Hong Kong protests, versus how we act in our free time is clearly drastically different. On a typical weekend I can be found on the south side of the island surfing in the beginner-friendly waves, waking up the next morning for a sunrise hike in the mountains, and finishing off the day on the windward side kayaking off shore. Oahu is great because within less than an hour drive you can get to the other side of the island with different landscape, vegetation, weather, and beaches.
I have also loved the chance to get to know the local culture. Carter and I are constantly relying on recommendations from local friends of what to see, do, and eat on the island and we haven’t been steered in a wrong direction yet. People here are so kind and willing to share aspects of their lives, like an invitation to a barbecue from a random friend of a friend. I am dreading leaving this paradise and my return to the real world where people don’t obsess over the same foreign affairs as me and then relax with days on the beach. This internship has been the perfect way to balance my academic and professional interests and my love for the outdoors. My time at INDOPACOM has been so great that I am already exploring ways I can scheme my way back here in the future.
