Salwa Balla, a National Security and Foreign Affairs and International Public Policy major and Arabic minor, was named the 2023 Outstanding Senior in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.

In Spring 2022 Balla participated in the Washington, D.C., Semester in Global Engagement, interning with the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center, which specializes in social, economic, and human development issues in the Middle East; she also worked as an undergraduate researcher for the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons through Virginia Tech’s Diplomacy Lab program.

During Summer 2022 she studied in France through Accents, the University of Savoie Mont Blanc’s French language education training center; while in Europe she attended the 2022 German Marshall Fund’s Brussels Forum in Belgium, a platform for global leaders and policy makers to debate pressing global challenges and shape the transatlantic agenda.

This semester Balla took part in a fellowship with Pallas Advisors, an advisory firm based in Washington, D.C., that specializes in national security, defense, and innovation. During her undergraduate career she has been involved with the Black Cultural Center and the Coalition for Refugee Resettlement.

Balla will spend two months after graduation interning with U.S. Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts in Washington, D.C., after which she will begin a full-time position as an analyst with Pallas Advisors.