Meet the New Director’s Fellows
They are budding politicos who have interned for politicians: Rishabh Bhandari for a London Member of Parliament, Rora Brodwin for Senator Feinstein’s office, Zach Young for New Haven Mayor Toni Harp and U.S. Senator Rob Portman, and Azeezat Adeleke for Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer and as a page in the Maryland Senate. They are interested in issues of race, poverty and criminal justice: Libby Dimenstein spent last summer at Georgetown Law’s Criminal Justice Clinic working for public defenders, and Simone Seiver tutors inmates at a Connecticut prison as they pursue their GEDs. Jacob Wolf-Sorokin concentrates on environmental issues and works on the Yale Sustainable Food Project, Cindy Zheng is an economics major interested in health policy issues and conducted research at the Urban Institute in the Tax Policy Center, and Andre Manuel, interested in urban policy, economic development, and anti-poverty programs, has recently served as Co-President of the Roosevelt Institute, an undergraduate think tank.
And then there’s Adrian Hale, a Yale junior and Eli Whitney Scholar: while the rest of his cohort was still in high school, Adrian was serving in the US Marine corps, including two deployments in Afghanistan.
Each of the students mentioned above has been selected by ISPS to be part of its 2015 class of Director’s Fellows in Domestic Policy. The fellowship was set up a year ago to answer the demand of the burgeoning undergraduate interest in politics and public policy. Since there is no policy school per se at Yale College, ISPS is stepping in to fill that gap by offering fellowships for students who see value in buffing up their policy wonk skills, regardless of their major. Applications for the Director’s Fellows in Domestic Policy are open to undergraduate students in all fields of study, from the social sciences to molecular biology.
“The Institution for Social and Policy Studies has a long tradition of fostering policy-related research and teaching at Yale,” says the Director of ISPS, Jacob Hacker. “We are happy to be able to deepen our engagement in this area by welcoming our second class of Director’s Fellows. These ten amazing Yale college students bring enthusiasm, intellect, and commendable public spirit to our Domestic Policy Program. We are excited to help them learn how to conduct high-quality social science research that speaks to important public problems, while also fostering their direct engagement with the making and shaping of public policy through a meaningful summer internship.”
The Director’s Fellows program provides its undergraduates a chance to meet with well-known policy experts, mentor with ISPS faculty and grad students, and hone their research, writing and presentation skills. The fellowship runs from January to December. A summer internship in government or with a NGO is required. Students work on melding the knowledge they’ve gained through their academic pursuits with the hands-on experience of their summer internships, culminating in a capstone project. The program also provides a stipend for research.
Two Yale law students, Ariel Dobkin and Brian Highsmith, will oversee the new cohort of fellows, having come fresh from working in the D.C. policy trenches themselves. Brian was at the National Economic Council and worked under then Director Gene Sperling and now Director Jeffrey Zients. And Ariel spent two years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau where she worked on a range of issues including mortgage policy, financial institution risk analysis, and strategy.
“The Director’s Fellows are one of the important links between ISPS and Yale College,” says Ariel. “We’re thrilled that the second class is starting. Not only will they gain important policy experience, but they will also become crucial contributors to ISPS, Yale, and their respective fields more broadly.”
For individual pages of the new director’s fellows, click here.
For information about the program, click here. Applications open every year in November.