By Julia Batavick
Madison Beltz is a Gender and Global Security Program Assistant at WIIS Global. She is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and Economics at George Washington University.
Originally hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, Madison moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when she was four, where she attended Peters Township High School. While there, she served in student government first as Vice President and eventually as the Student Body President. She also channeled her passion for environmentalism into a leadership position in the school environmental club where she organized various cleanup activities and ran the school’s recycling program. 
In her freshman year of high school, Madison took Global Studies, which exposed her to the importance of international relations and inspired her to pursue a career in international affairs. After her freshman year of college, she spent the summer working with AIESEC International at an NGO in Argentina where she taught children English and improved her Spanish. Madison continues to practice her Spanish daily while in quarantine and will be travelling to Spain in Spring 2021.
Since attending George Washington University (GW), Madison has focused her studies on economics, the language of the world, and she has learned that no matter what language you speak, money, trade, and economy are universal. In addition to learning about the global economy, Madison has also found another passion in political geography, which looks beyond simple maps and explores the resources and interactions between regions. Madison also looked to extracurriculars to supplement her studies and joined Sigma Iota Rho, an international affairs honor society where she became the Vice President of Finance. She also participates in the GWU chapter of WIIS and helps organize events on international security, such as an annual intelligence event with the FBI and the CIA. Apart from her her studies, Madison spends her free time cooking and reading YA and adventure fiction books with an annual re-read of Harry Potter every summer.
In the future, Madison plans to work in the international affairs world, but isn’t set on a certain sector. She hopes to translate her interest in the global economy and international trade into a career in the intelligence community or national government. She would also love to have an opportunity to travel for her work. At WIIS, Madison helps write blogs, practices administration duties and member engagement, and is working on the US SouthComm Latin American Scorecard, which looks at various indicators of how effectively members of the Southern Command are following the WPS agenda. Madison is a wonderful addition to the WIIS Global team!