Tryon native Cabot Lee Petoia, class of 2012 at PCHS, is currently attending a public diplomacy workshop in Rosarito, Mexico. The workshop, offered through Emerson College, is giving her the opportunity to practice public diplomacy and civic engagement by running a public relations campaign for a student film festival in Rosarito, Mexico, a town just south of Tijuana.

Cabot Lee will also be working with Laura Torres, a Rosarito native who is running for governor, to learn more about how political campaigning works south of U.S. borders. Overall, the collaboration between the Rosarito Film Festival and Boston-based Emerson College serves as an effort to continue bridging cultural and political gaps between Mexico and the United States.

Cabot Lee will graduate with a degree in political communications at the close of the workshop, and has plans to move to Washington, D.C. to begin a career in public policy research.

She feels grateful for the opportunity to work internationally, and encourages Polk County-ites to visit the beautiful country of Mexico if they get the chance.

– article submitted by Cabot Lee Petoia