Kevin Dupont '16 of the men's tennis team is our latest summer check-in, as he prepares for his third year with the Judges at the same time he prepares for a career in foreign affairs.

Dupont, a native of North Dighton, Massachusetts, was a mid-year enrollee at Brandeis in January of 2013. He's kept his tennis skills sharp on the local United States Tennis Association (USTA) circuit this summer, with the goal of cracking the Judges' starting lineup next spring. Dupont has traveled back and forth from the Washington D.C., area to play in tournaments, including a mixed-doubles event in Beverly where he placed second. He's also played in events in Northern Virginia.

"Tennis has been an amazing experience during my first year-and-a-half," says Dupont. "Each and every teammate of mine has been like a brother."

During the week, he's been living at American University in Washington, D.C., and interning with the Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina, a foreign policy firm attached to the Bosnian embassy. It's been a five-week crash-course in foreign policy. He's already met with the National Security Council, three different United States Congressmen and the Bosnian ambassador to the U.S.

The internship is just one step in Dupont's goal of working for the U.S. Department of State.

"I didn't know much about the Balkan region of Europe before my internship," Dupont says. "But I felt that I needed to learn more about it in order to succeed in my future plans."

The next step will take the International and Global Studies major to Geneva, Switzerland, this fall to study abroad. It's not a typical destination, but Dupont – who speaks six languages – hopes that an additional internship in International Relations in such a world-wide center of diplomacy will further his lofty educational goals. Studying in Switzerland is "more of a risk" than the typical study-abroad opportunity, but Dupont thinks the experience will pay off in the end.

After Brandeis, he looks forward to applying for post-graduate scholarships for foreign study, including the Fulbright Fellowship. A dual interest in the Middle East and the Russian language has Dupont focused on the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan – a country barely older than Dupont himself – before returning to graduate school to complete his studies.

Click here for a photo gallery of Kevin Dupont in Washington.