Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great pleasure to welcome you all here to the State Department this morning and I hope you have a great day here at the Department with your parents and for part of the time maybe not with your parents but off watching different parts of the Department at work.

I hope you notice some of the wonderful people who work in the Department, such as the guy who is running the chain saw right now, so that you can't hear me -- (laughter.)

But we have all sorts of things going on here at the State Department. I hope when you came in the front door, you noticed the very sharp looking guards. They are an important part of what we do here at the State Department, making sure that we are secure. The people who come in and take care of this beautiful, historic building every day, they are an important part of the State Department. The diplomats who represent our country around the world who are not here today but are out doing their job for the American people are an important part of the State Department.

And all the offices you go to today are all connected together and are all connected together to do a single job, and that is to represent the American people, to represent you, to represent your parents, to represent your neighbors, to represent your teachers, to represent everybody you know who is a fellow American, to represent us to the rest of the world. Right now, while we are sitting here this morning at about just before 9:00, our Embassy people in Beijing are 12 hours in the other direction and they are already ending their day working with Chinese officials on matters that are important to us.

While we sit here at 9:00, it's early afternoon in Europe and people from the State Department are hard at work doing all kinds of things, helping people become U.S. citizens, getting people papers so they can visit the United States, presenting positions and explaining our views on things all around the world.

So your parents work in what I think is a very, very important department of government, helping to convey to the rest of the world America's values, the values we believe in, freedom, democracy, the free enterprise system where people can work anywhere they want and become as wealthy as they choose to become as long as they're willing to invest the time and get the education they need and also have a dream and an ambition that will take them to the heights of whatever that dream says is their destiny.

And these values we believe in strongly and we try to convey to the rest of the world. And that's what your parents do. They just don't come here every day and work nine hours a day and then come home at night tired, don't talk to you, everybody sits in front of the television for an hour. They're just not working hard at jobs that don't mean anything; they're working very hard at jobs that are very, very important. It's not just office work. It is conveying the value system of the American people to the rest of the world, a value system that works, a value system that people are copying.

People are looking at us saying, how do they put a country like that together? How has it become so wealthy? How do people from so many different parts of the world come to America and suddenly they're all Americans and they get along? Sometimes there are problems but, for the most part, they get along. What a wonderful system.

And your parents every day come here to further that value system and to show the rest of the world how you can live in peace and how you can live in harmony. Very important work is done here in the State Department. And it is my privilege to serve as the Secretary of State, as the foreign policy advisor to the President. But more importantly -- or just as importantly, I should say; nothing is more important than advising the President -- but just as important, serving as the leader and manager of the Department and helping your parents do the very best job that they can do and they want to do.

What I want you all to do here today is keep your eyes open, look at what people are doing. You're going to discover a few things. They're always reading something. Lots of homework takes place in the State Department. When I go home at night, I have two full briefcases. I hate to break your hearts kids. It never ends. (Laughter.) You'll be doing homework for the rest of your life.

You'll see people here all day long reading. You'll see lots of people bent over writing. And as I am doing now, you will see people all day long speaking, using the English language as the most powerful tool of diplomacy. And I want you to take that away from here in your mind and in your heart. The English language is the most powerful tool of diplomacy. And, guess what? It is the most powerful tool that is available to you.

So watch how people use the English language all day long. Look how important it is to be able to read, write, communicate, listen properly. And when you can do all that properly with the English language, then you can learn all kinds of other things. You can acquire all kinds of other knowledge once you've mastered English. You'll see that in the course of the day. You'll see people who are dedicated, who believe in what they're doing.

I want you to observe, I want you to ask questions. You're going to hear a lot of words you have never heard before. I'm a soldier and I've had to learn a whole new language when I came over to the State Department. They don't speak Infantry over here, they speak Diplomacy. (Laughter.)

We just had a class in the last 24 hours with all of my senior officials upstairs on what the words Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary means. Isn't that a beautiful term? But when we send our ambassadors to a foreign country, they show up in the capital and they look for the king or the prime minister or the president in order to present their credentials from the President of the United States and present themselves as the President's representative. And they are introduced as Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. That's even better than being a general. (Laughter.) So these kinds of words you're going to hear in the course of the day, fascinating words, which will expose you to the science, the art and the culture of being diplomats.

I hope at the end of the day, some of you will go away excited, having seen all of this. Maybe with a little bit of a seed deep in your mind that says, you know, I might want to do something like that, I might want to start thinking about being a diplomat, I want to be an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Or, I want to be one of the security people I saw. Or, I am very interested in what I saw up in the diplomatic rooms and I might want to get into museum work.

There are all kinds of things here in the State Department that I hope will impress you and will touch you. And what you will see above all and the best lesson you're going to get from today's experience is you're going to see people who understand that to get something done and to do it well, you've got to work hard, you've got to study, you've got to prepare, you've got to show up ready to do the task of the day; not daydream, not think about tomorrow, but always be ready to do the task that is before you today.

And so we are very pleased to have you here. We hope you enjoy the day, we hope you especially enjoy being with your parents for the day. And it is my great pleasure now to ask all of the young people to look inside your packets and pull out the oath that you are now going to read as I swear you in to the Department of State as employees for the day, and I need all the young people to stand up, please.

Now, you've got to raise your right hand. Does everybody have their oath in front of them? Raise your right hand. I want you to speak out loud and clear so they can hear you all the way up on the seventh floor. Repeat after me.

I swear --

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: I swear --

SECRETARY POWELL: -- that I will support and defend --

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: -- that I will support and defend --

SECRETARY POWELL: -- the Constitution of the United States --

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: -- the Constitution of the United States --

SECRETARY POWELL: -- against all enemies --

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: -- against all enemies --

SECRETARY POWELL: -- foreign and domestic.

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: -- foreign and domestic.

SECRETARY POWELL: That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States.

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the United States.

SECRETARY POWELL: That I take this obligation fully --

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: That I take this obligation fully --

SECRETARY POWELL: -- without any mental reservation --

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: -- without any mental reservation --

SECRETARY POWELL: -- or purpose of evasion --

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: -- or purpose of evasion --

SECRETARY POWELL: -- and that I will well and faithfully discharge --

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: -- and that I will well and faithfully discharge --

SECRETARY POWELL: -- the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

HONORARY EMPLOYEES: -- the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

SECRETARY POWELL: Welcome to the State Department for the day, my honorary employees, extraordinary and plenipotentiary. Thank you. (Applause.)