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2017 Interns: Taylor Piotrowski, fourth from right: projects and external affairs coordinator; Holly Wetzel, second from right: communications manager
Running an internship program has a lot of benefits. Yes, we put bright capable people on productive projects, and they do great work when they’re here. But hosting interns also establishes relationships with people in the early parts of their careers, and the connection can last for years.
Some former interns drift away, but some stick around. As evidence, I was the first intern the Mackinac Center hired on full-time. I used to manage the program, so I wanted to share some stories about the ones I keep running into.
One of my fellow fiscal policy interns was Laura Davis. She went on to get her law degree from the University of Michigan and was a partner with a Washington, D.C., law firm before finding a place with a Detroit group. She also owns and manages Detroit’s first Barre fitness studio. She’s kept up with us and provided advice and encouragement in the years after her internship. Plus, a 16-year friendship is a nice bit of good luck to come from an internship.
C. Jarrett Dieterle, a 2011 intern in our legal foundation, has a new book out, “Give Me Liberty and Give Me a Drink.” He is also the director of the R Street Foundation’s Commercial Freedom program. He recently co-wrote a commentary for The Hill on the disconnect between liquor control rules and public health, with our own Michael LaFaive.
While some collaborations are one-offs, we sometimes have more sustained ones. Alexa Kramer was a 2016 intern with us in our education policy initiative. She found a job with the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, and we’ve met with her and her colleagues about our transportation scholarship idea.
I was especially happy when the Tax Foundation announced it would hire Janelle Cammenga to be a state policy analyst. She was an intern even before starting college — and one of my favorites. She set the record for getting responses from school districts in our annual survey of school districts — a task I did when I was an intern. She’s been a go-to person for some technical questions on tax policy.
Speaking of technical advice, I still reach out to professor Daniel J. Smith, a 2007 intern. He’s an economist at Middle Tennessee State University and is good for email exchanges on some of the lessons from economics for the state policy debate. He’s got an article in the journal, Public Choice, on lessons about term limits from Middle Age and Renaissance Venice.
Elizabeth Losinski was an intern with us in 2011. She returned this summer to visit, as part of her team at the Coors Foundation. She’s been fundraising for some other organizations that work to defend free markets.
Oh, and here’s an odd one. If you’ve been following the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, you’ll note that New Zealand had a small outbreak and was able to contain it quickly. You might know this, in part, because Geneva Ruppert-Wise — a 2013 intern and later an editor with us — is now with the New Zealand Health Ministry’s communications staff.
We’ve been able to host over 100 internships since my internship. And this includes my co-workers and fellow former interns Taylor Piotrowski, Isaiah Bierbrauer, Jarrett Skorup, Holly Wetzel and Jonathan VanDerhoof.
It’s rewarding to work with our interns during their tenure with us, and even more to continue to work with them in one form or another when they move on.
