Petty Officer Second Class Seth Smith

Seth joined the Navy in 2002, motivated by the 9/11 attacks as a young man admittedly lacking direction and focus. He had tried to continue his education after high school, but was not doing well and decided to try a different route.

He spent six years in the Navy with two deployments to Iraq as a Persian-Farsi linguist, and credits the military for turning him into a responsible man with ambition, a sense of duty, a commitment to service and direction.

After leaving the Navy with new-found maturity, Seth earned an associate’s degree at Santa Monica City College and then a BA in middle eastern and north African studies at UCLA, where he graduated with a 3.7 GPA. Sandwiched in between the two school’s was a 2009 summer internship in the office of military affairs/national security aid for Senator Joe Lieberman.

Seth plans to continue his development at Princeton with the hope of strengthening his credentials in the areas of foreign policy and international security. His eventual goal is to continue to serve his country through government or nonprofit work, focusing on international affairs.