Just six months after his 2002 graduation from the University of Denver, Joe Chamberlain landed the ideal job for a victim of wanderlust.

With both a bachelor's and master's degree in international studies, as well as a BA in French, Chamberlain went to work for the U.S. State Department's Foreign Service. His first international assignment took him to the U.S. embassy in Tajikistan. He's currently posted in Trinidad and Tobago, known as T&T to globetrotting diplomats.

"Life in the State Department can be crazy," says Chamberlain, who grew up in Glenwood Springs, Colo. "Every couple years we pick up and move to a new place and job. I'm always learning something new and different, both about how the State Department works and the host country's issues.

"In T&T, I have primary responsibility for monitoring counter-narcotics, law enforcement issues, labor unions and religious freedom. In Tajikistan, which is a smaller embassy, I handled many more issues, ranging from democracy promotion to agriculture. You'd be surprised how those two issues, and everything in between, can be linked," Chamberlain explains. "Anyway, what I do is meet with people in the host country who are involved with the topics I cover, get outside information (say, from international organizations) and analyze and synthesize the information into reports that go back to the State Department to inform foreign policy decisions."

Learning on the move is nothing new for Chamberlain, who spent four years doing just that as a member of DU's forensics/debate team. "We had to think on our feet and condense information into salient, manageable chunks in short amounts of time," he recalls, noting that his classes in the liberal arts also served to sharpen his critical thinking skills. "DU teaches you how to look for information and how to put it together into a coherent whole, two key skills that I put into practice every day."

Although Chamberlain's next assignment may take him to another hemisphere, he's ready for the adventure. "We never know quite what the next tour will bring," he says of Foreign Service employees. "I could wind up anywhere from Washington, D.C., to Ulan Bator."