SPN/IHS Summer Fellows Class of '08

Published on Tuesday, October 21, 2008
ARTICLES

Since 2006, four SPN / IHS Charles G. Koch Summer Fellows have been hired by state think tanks. Heading into its fifth year, the number of former fellows hired is likely to increase: Past participants will graduate, and the number of fellows doubled from 14 in 2007 to 28 this past summer.

A more immediate program benefit is the work performed by the fellows. However, work only starts after students have passed a competitive application process and are approved by the potential host institute. The screening process produces results. This year one host institute supervisor commented, we "would do it again," the fellow was "stellar." Another remarked, the fellow was "confident in his intellectual abilities, and he should be." Finally, "You have invested in a person who will do good things for the movement."

The fellows undertook an array of substantive projects, from writing and recording radio commentaries to writing policy papers, from drafting a federal complaint for a regulatory takings action against a city to applying their design/video editing skills. One organization held a debate between its interns, another organized a moot court.

A summer highlight came when Jim Vote, a fellow at the Mackinac Center, discovered a PowerPoint presentation on a UAW website,"Changing the rules of politics inMichiganto help Democrats." The presentation boldly highlighted how the Reform Michigan Government Now ballot proposal would benefit the Democratic Party. Vote wrote about this on the Center's fellows' blogsite, tryingliberty.wordpress.com, which set off a firestorm, exemplified in the Detroit Free Press article, "Democrats' strategy for state control revealed." (In August, the Michigan Court of Appeals removed the proposal from the ballot for unrelated reasons.)

Preparation for the 2009 SPN / IHS Summer Fellow Program is underway. Do you know college students who represent a good investment for liberty? Email their contact information to kurt@spn.org.