1. May 1, 2015
To Whom It May Concern,
It is my pleasure to provide this letter of recommendation for Iliari Gutierrez. Iliari participated in the
U.S. Department of State's prestigious Virtual Student Foreign Service internship program during the
2014-2015 academic year. As a virtual intern, Iliari significantly exceeded my expectations in her work as
a member of the CampusUSA digital campaign team in the Office of Campaigns, Bureau of International
Information Programs.
The Bureau of International Information Programs’ mission is to create and implement public
engagement strategies to advance U.S. foreign policy goals. The Office of Campaigns is at the forefront
of this effort and leads the Department in digital engagement with foreign audiences. As campaign
managers, we serve as consultants to our policy lead counterparts to conceive, coordinate, and
implement integrated public engagement strategies designed to organize communities of interest and
create a public environment favorable to the advancement of specific policy objectives. We strategically
align audiences, messages, products, and channels based on audience, market, and performance
analysis. We recommend and develop appropriate tools for the public engagement campaigns and build
capacity among Public Diplomacy officers elsewhere in the Department and around the world to
sustainably manage those tools.
In 2011, President Obama launched the 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative aimed to increase
international student mobility between the United States and countries in the Western Hemisphere,
with a goal of 100,000 students moving in each direction to attend credit-bearing programs annually by
2020. Supporting this initiative is a Department priority and the CampusUSA digital campaign was
launched to inspire, educate, engage and connect students in South and Central America with the
resources they need to study in the U.S.
Iliari served an extremely important role in the campaign by acting as a sounding board to help us shape
our content to resonate best with the target audience. Iliari showed great initiative by proposing
creative new content ideas and programs, which we employed regularly. Iliari went above and beyond
by researching international student resources on her campus, by identifying international students
willing to serve as spokespersons and by helping to showcase the real the experience of life on an
American campus. Participating in a virtual internship with little oversight and guidance is not for
everyone, but I was very impressed that Iliari kept the project’s momentum going and continued to
communicate clearly about her work in progress, despite periods of unresponsiveness from me!
I strongly recommend Iliari and believe her creativity, strong communication skills and demonstrated
initiative will be an asset to your work. I would be happy to provide additional information and can be
reached by email at evansse2@state.gov.
Thank you,
Sarah Evans
Office of Campaigns, Bureau of International Information Programs
U.S. Department of State