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After completing the fellowship, Kilani will earn an appointment in the State Department.

Kilani’s background as an Iraqi refugee and his journey to America is the driving force behind his desire to serve the United States, he said. “My family and I benefited from American humanitarian policies firsthand,” he explained. “My lived experience as a byproduct of war motivates me to join the Foreign Service and use diplomacy as a pathway to peace.”

Kilani was born in Amman, Jordan, where he and his family lived as displaced Iraqis. He was six years old, in 2009, when his family was first resettled in Texas and then in Portland, Maine. His brother, Mohamed Kilani ’21, is now a public school teacher in Maine.

Kilani has never forgotten the dignified treatment his family received from people working for organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross. In their journey from Jordan to America, six US agencies and two UN organizations offered assistance. “I am proud to be an American by choice—this nation welcomed me at my most vulnerable moment, ensuring I could live a childhood where birds dotted the sky instead of bombs and bullets,” he wrote in his fellowship application.

In return, he said, “I have pursued public service in everything I’ve done.” The computer science major and government minor has a long resume of community work, including hosting writing workshops and poetry recitals for young people in his role as alumni ambassador for  in Portland, twice serving in ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ Student Government as president of his class, and leading blood drives for the American Red Cross in Brunswick. “All my life, I have been doing everyday diplomacy by teaching, volunteering, and mentoring,” he said. 

As a McKeen Center Global Citizens Fellow in Peru in the summer of 2022, he taught English lessons for students and assisted two teachers at Helping Hands, a nonprofit serving disadvantaged children there. He also helped to renovate classrooms, created a Kickstarter campaign for alpaca farmers, and performed food and book deliveries to rural villages.

During his study abroad semester in Copenhagen, Denmark, he hosted biweekly Arabic and English language lessons as a tutor with Studenterhuset's , a gathering space for students.

When Kilani traveled to Washington, DC, in 2023 with ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ Public Service (BPS), a program for sophomores that introduces them to jobs in the civil sector, his specific interest in foreign service was ignited. “It made me realize it could be a career for me,” he said. His fluency in Arabic is a big asset. This year, Kilani is working as a program coordinator for BPS.

Wendy Van Damme, the McKeen Center's associate director for public service, described Kilani as “a thoughtful person, able and willing to look at issues from an angle that many people do not consider.” She was impressed with how he handled himself in DC in meetings with high-level officials and with Maine’s two senators. “Khalil was prepared and confidently asked astute questions,” she said. “He researched each speaker, became intrigued by aspects of their work, and went into each encounter curious and ready to learn.”

Further cementing Kilani's desire for a diplomatic career was his selection last summer to the highly selective —a two-year program with one domestic internship at the Department of State and one overseas internship at a US embassy or consulate. He worked with the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, “the same bureau that helped me and my family come to the United States,” he said. 

Associate Professor of Government Jeffrey Selinger, who has taught Kilani in one of his policy classes, said Kilani is "as exceptional in reality as he appears to be 'on paper,'” with a special talent for open-mindedness. “Khalil has demonstrated an all-too-rare capacity to hold multiple, evidence-based truths that point in different political directions in mind at the same time.”

Selinger added, “Khalil possesses an exemplary combination of qualities: an uncommon intellect, extraordinary personal fortitude, and, on an inter-personal level, a disarming mix of kindness, warmth, and sincerity. He also possesses the practical wherewithal of a young man who has witnessed how policies impact the lives of real people.”

The Rangel Fellowship is one of several competitive fellowships, along with the Pickering and the Clarke, that aims to create a pipeline of “outstanding young people” to “help formulate, represent, and implement US foreign policy.”

Kilani says he’d like to be a consular officer—stationed at a US embassy or consulate abroad and responsible for the welfare of US citizens living or traveling there—because it’s a job where he’ll get many opportunities to help people directly. “You’re at the front lines of diplomacy,” he said. “A single interaction with a consular officer is the ultimate measure of our nation’s character because it builds rapport with populations worldwide.”

And he’s open to working anywhere in the world. “I love learning about different cultures, people, and politics,” he said.

Kilani is one of two members of the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø±¬ÍøÕ¾ community to receive a competitive foreign service fellowship in the latest round of awards. The other is Adriana Nazarko ’21, who has been named a Pickering Fellow.