Humanitarian
Teacher
Diplomat

Conor McGuire
Class of 2007

As Valedictorian of the Laconia High School Class of 2007, Conor McGuire set the stage for his successful career early. After graduating high school, he went on to attend the University of New Hampshire where he studied Linguistics, English, Spanish, and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). He participated in a Master’s program for TESOL at St. Michael’s College through the Peace Corps Master’s International Program, and shortly thereafter moved to Jordan where he taught English with the Peace Corps for nearly three years and later earned a Critical Language Scholarship sponsored by the U.S. Department of State to study Arabic. After returning from Jordan, Conor worked for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as an Asylum Officer helping asylum-seekers get protection in the United States. As part of this role, Conor volunteered to be detailed for several months to Istanbul, Turkey where he helped refugees from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria resettle to the United States. Conor left DHS to pursue a Master’s program in International Affairs at Columbia University focused on the Middle East and North Africa. During his time at Columbia, Conor honed his Arabic skills and spent several months living in Lebanon supporting a non-governmental organization to provide education programs to Syrian refugees. After graduation, he returned to DHS for several months before being selected by the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer. Conor’s goal post-LHS graduation has been to stay on the move, and he has done just that. He has lived in multiple cities across the United States, and has also lived in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Ethiopia--where he currently serves as the U.S. Embassy's Human Rights Officer. His next tour in the Foreign Service will take him to Erbil, Iraq in 2023. Conor has made a career as a student, teacher, interpreter, civil servant, humanitarian, and diplomat. He speaks Amharic, Arabic, and Spanish, and plans to learn Kurdish for his next assignment.