Mark Seibel grew up in Hillsboro, Kan., and envisioned himself to be a small town man for the rest of his life, he said from his office at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

After two years at Tabor College, Seibel transferred to and graduated from Wichita State University in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and again in 1989 with a master’s degree.

Seibel was majoring in history at Tabor and had planned to go to law school, but he said WSU political science professors ignited his passion to explore the field of international relations.

“I had had all of my political science classes from WSU professors,” Seibel said. “Each of them had an impact in their own way.”

WSU professors also taught political science classes at Tabor, which did not have a political science major.

“(Associate professor Kenneth) Ciboski’s ‘Politics in Developing Areas’ and (associate professor and emeritus James) McKenney’s ‘Introduction to International Relations’ first sparked my interest in pursuing a different career path than the small town lawyer I envisioned for myself my freshman year,” Seibel said.

He realized he would have to go to a different college to pursue a career in political science.

“I encouraged him to come over here from Tabor,” Ciboski said, “because I knew he was a very bright student.”

Seibel stepped out of his small town ideals when he traveled to the Soviet Union in 1983 with Ciboski before transferring to WSU.

Ciboski said students need to travel and be exposed to different political systems and cultures, which is why he has taken 12 groups of students to the Soviet Union.

“They could see what was available and what wasn’t,” he said. “A lot of students said they would never complain again about any service in the United States.”

Though Seibel left Russia with a strong negative impression, he took away an enlightened attitude from his trip, which he said crystallized his desire to explore international relations and pursue a career as a diplomat.

“It was my first exposure to foreign travel and foreign culture,” he said. “It was so far from anything I had experienced (in Hillsboro).”

Seibel said talking to people from other countries with different points of view and different levels of education was fascinating, and he wanted more.

He successfully fulfilled his desire in 1991 when he joined the Foreign Services, where, he said, he draws on some knowledge he received from WSU every day.

Seibel serves as consul and second secretary, chief of the Immigrant Visa Unit at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

His responsibility is to complete the paperwork and process properly, in good time and in a manner that welcomes Russian immigrants to the United States.

Seibel said he does immigrant visas for Russian orphans adopted by American families. The best part is when he tells parents the visa is approved and they’ve come to the end of that long, difficult process.

“Seeing that look of joy,” he said, “I like that.”

The well-rounded education and individual attention he received at WSU prepared him to work in his position at the embassy, Seibel said.

“I feel that my current posting to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has brought me back full circle,” he said, “to the time that I rode past the embassy in a tour bus full of WSU students and wondered what people were doing in that building and whether I might be cut out for that work.”

He said the encouragement and mentoring he received from WSU professors gave him the confidence and the ability to set out on the path that brought him back to Moscow, now, working in the same building he rode past as a student 25 years ago.