Photo courtesy of Aimee Falkum. Aimee Falkum graduated from Lakeview Secondary in 2010 and now works as a U.S. Diplomat as an Economic Officer in the U.S Foreign Services. Below: Falkum visited with her former Lakeview teacher Marcy Nuytten on Oct. 2 during her trip home.

COTTONWOOD — Once just a kid growing up in Cottonwood and curious about the world, Aimee Falkum grew into a passionate and open-minded student which has taken her to serving the country as a United States Diplomat in Foreign Services.

Falkum currently serves as an economic officer for the U.S. Foreign Service in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia at the U.S. Embassy. Her journey first began with a high school trip to Europe, which sparked international interest, and she hasn’t stopped traveling the world since. However now, she does it for her job with a meaningful impact.

“I am a U.S. Diplomat, but I’m also just a kid from the prairie,” said Falkum. “Any of us is perfectly capable of doing it.”

A public service career in some form was bound to find Falkum, as her family has a history of serving.

“I knew that I wanted a career in public service. My dad was in the Navy and worked for the county government up in Willmar for many years,” Falkum said. “Both my grandfathers were in the military. My one grandfather was the former postmaster at Clarkfield.”

Falkum graduated from Lakeview High School in 2010, while she also was taking post-secondary enrollment classes [PSEO] at Southwest Minnesota State University. From there, she got her bachelor’s in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Hawaii – Manoa, then her Master of Public Administration and Master of International Relations at Syracuse University in New York.

“When I was in high school, I got the opportunity to travel to Europe with the Minnesota Ambassadors of Music. It was my first time leaving North America, first time traveling internationally,” Falkum said. “It really opened my eyes, and I realized how much of the world was out there.”

Falkum said she found great interest in the Syrian Civil War, which was going on during her time in college, and wanted to study why countries go to war. She also was fascinated by the Middle East as a region, and began studies in political history, Islamic Studies and learned Arabic as well.

During her undergraduate studies, Falkum was on a study abroad trip to Hiroshima, Japan, and had a conversation with her advisor about exploring law school, but the two of them knew that wasn’t her calling.

“I was having dinner with my advisor, who was also teaching on the trip,” Falkum said. “He said, ‘Well, don’t waste your time,’ … And that was great advice.”

Falkum next found herself at Syracuse. She interned in the U.S. Senate, which led to an internship with the State Department in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations.

Before her current assignment in Malaysia, Falkum’s first gig out of college was working for the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, which looked at oversight of U.S. reconstruction funding in Afghanistan. Then from 2017-2021, she served as strategic advisor to the Interagency Man-Portable Air Defense Systems Task Force, where she helped to manage conventional weapons destruction programs.

“That was really impactful work, traveling to areas like Vietnam that my dad would have served in in the 70s, and now I’m going back 50 years later to try to get rid of the land mines there,” Falkum said. “It’s a really full-circle moment, and really just rewarding work.”

April 2021 changed everything for Falkum.

“I got the invitation to join the Foreign Service. I had taken the Foreign Service officer test several years before that, and it’s kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Falkum said. “You don’t want to say no. I talked it over with my fiance at the time, now husband, and we decided we would go for it, so I accepted the offer.”

Falkum’s first assignment was as a consular officer in the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and facilitated travel to the U.S, which next led to her current assignment in Malaysia.

“My job is to both connect what the Malaysians are doing in Malaysia, with what we want to support from the U.S. government perspective,” Falkum said. “Building connections between the U.S. industry and U.S. nonprofits who want to work in Malaysia, or who have solutions to the issues that Malaysia is facing, and really just bringing our two countries closer together.”

Through the work Falkum does, her opportunities to come back home are limited, at typically once a year. On Wednesday, she visited her roots and spoke to classes at Lakeview High School and SMSU.

“I wanted to take the opportunity while I was back to chat with students,” Falkum, who didn’t know about Foreign Service careers until graduate school, said. “If you don’t even know about it, you can’t make that decision for yourself. I just wanted to humanize and demystify the work that I and my colleagues do.”

Falkum said for those interested in what she does, there isn’t a specific major, and it just requires being intellectually curious and having clear writing skills to be able to communicate properly and quickly. She also recommends looking into both international and domestic internships.

Falkum has three local inspirations that helped pave her path. Her former civics teacher at Lakeview, Marcy Nuytten, SMSU Justice Administration professor and former mock trial coach Amanda Sieling, and former PSEO American Early History professor Joan Gittens. She said all three of them played pivotal roles in exposing her to world topics beyond Cottonwood.

Photo courtesy of Aimee Falkum. Aimee Falkum, Lakeview graduate of 2010, visited with her former teacher Marcy Nuytten on Oct. 2 during her trip home, and is currently working in Malaysia with the U.S. Foreign Services.

Of all the places she visits and works in, Falkum will always appreciate coming back to Minnesota.

“I got a really lovely question from somebody, asking where the prettiest or coolest place I’ve been to was. I started answering by telling a story about how my husband and I went to the Maldives,” Falkum said. “Halfway through, I caught myself because this week I’ve been spending up at my family’s cabin up in Alexandria, and there was the prettiest sunset in the world … There’s so much beauty in our own country.”

Falkum’s husband, Josh, also works in the Foreign Services and the two are currently serving separate tours, but Falkum said they try to see each other as often as they can. Josh is currently on assignment in Hong Kong.

As Falkum will soon return back to Malaysia, she stays grounded in knowing the impactful work she has already done throughout her career.

“I’m really proud to be a part of it [Foreign Services],” Falkum said. “I’m proud to serve my country in a different way than perhaps what is traditionally thought of.”