This summer, rising senior Jared Mercadante kept himself busy in Washington, D.C. as a Koch Foundation Fellow and an intern. He shares a sample week with us.
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| Jared Mercadante |
My name is Jared Mercadante, and I am heading into my
senior year at Roanoke College where I am studying economics and philosophy.
This summer, as part of the Charles Koch Institute’s “Koch Fellow Program:
Policy”, I interned at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the premier
university Libertarian economic policy think tank. Although I was a remote
employee, I lived in the Washington, D.C. area so as to be able to form
connections with scholars and other interns. While there, I worked for the
Study of American Capitalism department, which is a group of scholars and
researchers focused on corporate welfare, barriers to entry, and the sharing
economy. Because of the department’s broad purview, I worked on projects
ranging from Minor League Baseball stadium subsidies to Mississippi’s
Certificate of Need program. This is what my last week of work looked like:
Monday:
I had gone home for the weekend, so I drove up during the middle of the day and
worked from home for the rest of the afternoon. Because it was my last week of
work, I really had to push to get all of my work done before Friday. This week,
I was working on two important projects. The program director, Dr. Matt
Mitchell, was invited to testify before Mississippi’s Certificate of Need (CON)
board, so I was tasked with preparing a memo for him, answering questions about
the length of time it takes to a acquire a CON, the fees associated with it,
and the history of the program, including important scandals. My other major
project was a policy brief discussing the Government Accounting Standards Board
Statement No.77, focusing on the excellent job done by Birmingham, Alabama,
with the hope of informing other city and state governments how best to report
information on corporate tax abatements. I also managed to squeeze in a little
research time on a project for Dr. Kassens.
Tuesday: I was in the office today. I really enjoyed my
days in the office because they gave me the chance to work more closely with my
department. Most of my work was entirely independent, so it was nice getting
the chance to collaborate. Today, I spent most of my time working on the policy
brief with Dr. Michael Farren. We were hoping to have a working draft by
Friday, with the intention of finalizing it over the next few months after my
internship ended.
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| Jared's Office |
Wednesday:
I had plenty of work to occupy my time, so I stayed home today. I finished as
much of the memo on Mississippi’s CON program as possible; I had to wait until
Thursday to submit a public records request to the Mississippi Department of
Health for the rest of the information. After completing the memo, I finished
my rough draft of the policy brief and submitted it to Dr. Farren for edits. I
had a substantial lull after that, so I managed to get another two hours of
work done for Dr. Kassens.
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| Notes on CON Laws for Memo |
Thursday:
Today was very laid back- I got to the office around 11pm and spent the rest of
the morning turning over some unfinished long term projects to the full-time
research associate. After this, I had my going away lunch with the on-site
members of my department. From here, Dr. Farren and I spent a few hours looking
over my rough draft of the policy brief to see what additional information he
wanted me to gather for use in the second draft. I left around 3:00 and got
home in time to relax for a few hours before I made my way to the Cato
Institute to meet a few friends for the annual Libertarian vs. Conservative
debate. This is an event hosted at Cato at the end of every summer, pitting two
interns from Cato against two interns from the conservative Heritage
Foundation. The auditorium fills up within minutes, and the overflow room is
packed. It’s a really exciting atmosphere, and definitely worth going to if
you’re in the DC area.
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Graduate studies area at the Mercatus Center
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Friday:
Today
was technically my last day, but I had very little work to do, so I stayed home.
I had submitted the public records request for the CON memo, but it would take
weeks to hear back. I was just waiting for the edits from Dr. Farren on the
policy brief, which ended up not coming until Saturday. This gave me the
opportunity to catch up on some research for Dr. Kassens; it had been a busy
week, giving me very few chances to get work done for her. After today, I will
continue working on the policy brief with Dr. Farren, but aside from that, I am
officially done at the Mercatus Center. After work, I made my way over to the
National Mall to enjoy a little bit of sunlight.
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| Working from home |
***Interested in an internship or research experience while at Roanoke College or over the summer? Talk to Dr. Kassens for information and contacts.***
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