My hometown of Dickinson, North Dakota is located at the southernmost part of the Bakken oil formation, which is one of the largest shale oil formations in the United States. Thousands of workers have flooded this area in western North Dakota where I live, each hoping to grab his own small piece of the wealth that thousands of new oil ... Read More

It’s a highly under-discussed issue of our time, yet it also happens to have the greatest impact on this country’s future. And when it garners the attention of the media, it’s never for the progress that’s being made. Welcome to the world of education reform in the 21st century, when the story that grabs headlines and leads the evening news ... Read More

This summer, enveloped in a campaign cycle largely defined by cynicism and triviality, I re-learned to love politics.

As an intern at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, I was delegated to research Romney’s stance on science. Though “science” is a very broad term, Romney has said relatively little on the topic. On the campaign trail he has flip flopped his position on stem cells, laughed at Gingrich’s space plan, and failed to supply a clear “mission” ... Read More

Most of what I did this summer is confidential, that is, at least until the time the shows I worked on actually hit the air. Still, while working at CBS News’ “60 Minutes” I did engage in some interesting discussions about ethics and practice. Aptly, I was following HBO’s The Newsroom during my internship. A major subject of discussion in ... Read More

“In the summer whole peoples visit one another to spy out each other’s nakedness.  Hebrew and Arabic, which are like guttural stones, like sand on the palate, grow soft as oil for the tourist’s sake.  Jihad and wars of mitzvah burst open like ripe figs.”    —from “Songs of Zion the Beautiful” by Yehuda Amichai Despite its tragic connotations in ... Read More

This summer I found myself reassessing my view of government as a vague and impersonal political machine chugging away in the Capitol. Adhering to my mom’s requirement that I stay close to family this summer, I gave up hopes of interning in D.C. and instead spent three months interning in a storefront office in Missouri with “Representative Vicky Hartzler, U.S. ... Read More

One day during lunch break from my summer journalism internship, I found myself sitting at a table across from two North Korean defectors at a Japanese restaurant in the backstreets of Seoul. I was filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude to be sharing a meal with two individuals who had lived through so much. Even more, this was just ... Read More

The United States’ relationship with the Arab world might be described as “involved,” “turbulent,” and largely focused on the Middle East. France, however, has a very different relationship with the Arab world centered on the Maghreb, the North African Arab nations consisting of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. I saw the unique interaction between the French and the Arab world this ... Read More

Not surprisingly, my two-month summer internship at China Universal Asset Management deepened my understanding of Chinese financial markets and the Chinese economy at large. But as I sifted through market analyses and examined the client potential of foreign investors, more poignant questions were often on my mind. Surely this – a market economy driven by some of the fastest economic ... Read More

I loved my job this summer: it used the wind to move hearts and minds (it’s a bird?), it traveled across the nation from New York City to Minneapolis to Denver to San Antonio, (it’s a plane?), and it consumed vegetable oil by the tank (it’s a fast food chain?). No. It’s the BioBus! A mobile science laboratory based out ... Read More

I spent two months this past summer interning on Capitol Hill for my Congressman, Rep. Gus Bilirakis. This immersion into the central artery of our nation’s government provided much more than the opportunity to field phone calls, sort mail and give Capitol tours. It yielded invaluable insight into the mystical world of the legislative branch, and corrected my partially misguided ... Read More

“Let me be something every minute of my life,” she says, “Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry…have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere – be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let ... Read More

Being introduced as “the Harvard intern” on the first day of my internship at the Massachusetts State House this past summer was more of a concern for me than I think the woman doing the introductions realized. I felt that the label implied that I had qualified for the position simply because I go to Harvard, which is actually far ... Read More

I’ve grown up introducing myself as the girl from Bombay, India. I’m entirely used to having to dispel the notions many people have about what it means to live in the subcontinent. No. I don’t own a cow. But yes, there are cows in the streets sometimes. No, not everyone is a Hindu. Yes, people do speak English. Sadly though, ... Read More

There’s a little place in Upstate NY, nestled along one of the most pristine 17-mile-long Finger Lakes (the seventh cleanest lake in the world, in fact), surrounded by woods and farmland beyond that, dotted with lake cottages, a few still relying on outdoor “plumbing,” where everyone fears the onset of hydrofracking. There, you won’t find cellphone reception, many cars in ... Read More

Having been born and having lived in Albania most of my life, and having had the chance to visit the region often, I had been sure of one thing: the population of Southeastern Europe is livelier than ever. There was great hope in people my age: hope that they would become part of the European Union within the next five ... Read More