It's not every Southwestern University student who gets to escort First Ladies of the United States from here to there.

It was in the spring of 1994, during Brian Jackson's junior year at Southwestern, when a coveted internship at NBC Studios in Washington D.C. introduced him to experiences ranging from the mundane to the sensational. One of the latter occasions involved whisking First Lady Hillary Clinton through the maze of NBC in preparation for a nationally televised town hall meeting on health care reform with a panel that included former Senate Majority Leader and Presidential hopeful Bob Dole and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.

"NBC brought me in to act as a production associate. I was responsible for crowd control and making sure that the microphones were working. Then, through my headset, I heard someone say, 'Brian, we need you down on the floor.' At the back door to the studio, Mrs. Clinton stepped out of her limousine with her bodyguard, and I took her upstairs. She fluffed her hair and asked me where I was from."

Most days, however, Jackson spent the majority of his time in a research center that provided background information for stories written for news programs such as "NBC Nightly News" with Tom Brokaw, "The Today Show," "Meet the Press," "Dateline" and "Now." He also clipped news articles covering politics.

"I didn't have a keen awareness of the political news in Washington before I arrived," Jackson says. "I scrambled around for a while to learn who the members of Congress and the Supreme Court Justices were. As time went on, I was doing more and more spot research for correspondents. They even started to ask for me by name."

While he enjoyed being in a "charged and hyper-educated" environment, the internship experience helped him conclude that a career in broadcast journalism wasn't in his future.

Jackson had arrived at Southwestern from New Braunfels, Texas, two years earlier, knowing immediately that he wanted to major in international studies.

"Initially, I was interested in how other cultures expressed themselves through literature," he says, noting his great appreciation for English literature and his fascination with London, England.

His first year at Southwestern, Jackson applied to the London Program which enables up to 30 students and two Southwestern professors to live and study together in the Kensington district of London. In addition to courses taught by Southwestern faculty, a "British Life and Culture" course is taught by visiting lecturers from British academic, governmental, and social institutions. The course includes field trips in London and southern England.

He was accepted to study abroad his sophomore year, even though typically the program only accepts juniors and seniors. His studies focused on modern European economics and political science. During fall break, Jackson toured Paris, France; the German cities of Munich and Frankfurt; various cities in Austria; Venice and Genoa in Italy; Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, and Morocco in Northern Africa.

"I came away with a stronger sense of what I wanted to do," he says, adding that the experience "primed" him for his Washington experience at NBC. "I looked at London as my academic experience. I wanted to supplement that with a professional experience."

After returning from Washington, Jackson began an honor's thesis on modern German film, which brought together the breadth of his experiences in D.C., in London and at Southwestern.

"Admittedly, it was not very practical, but from my experience abroad and in Washington with NBC, I knew I wanted to examine how other cultures see themselves in their own media, whether on film, in television, or on the printed page. I chose German film because I was a student of German and European Studies and I liked watching movies. It was the first major piece of individual academic work I'd ever done."

After graduating with Phi Beta Kappa and departmental honors in the spring, Jackson returned to Washington and took a position at the United States Environmental Training Institute where he serves as manager of communications.

Says Jackson, "I was looking for an opportunity to do media and communication-related work for a cause and an organization I could believe in." The USETI works with industrializing nations such as Thailand, Indonesia, Poland, South Africa and Mexico, to ensure that they are being "environmentally respectful." The agency monitors recycling programs and responsible waste management in these countries and brings in experts from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. State Department to work with government heads of countries to develop means to clean-up environmental problems. Jackson also has been able to "study" abroad through his current position by traveling to Bangkok, Thailand, and sites along the Thai gulf coast, where he helped organize and lead conferences.

Says Jackson, "I always thought of college not as professional preparation but as an opportunity to hone critical thinking skills in an environment where people are willing to discuss ideas openly."

"Southwestern gave me project management and strong writing skills and so many opportunities to develop class presentations. We were encouraged to get up and explain what our opinions were. And we learned how to be more articulate in the ways that we presented ideas. I use those skills every day, whether I'm presenting at meetings or conferences or trying to convince television stations in Peru or Indonesia to air stories about our programs. Southwestern prepared me for life after college."

Brian is now working or NBC Television in New York as manager of commercial initiatives. Since his profile was published in 1997, he attended graduate school in international business at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston. After finishing his master's degree, Brian moved to New York to work for NBC.