Class of 2020 First-Year Fellow: Alex Fredman '20

Alex Fredman '20 is from St. Louis, Missouri and graduated summa cum laude from Parkway North High School. At Parkway North, Alex was the secretary of National Honor Society and a saxophone section leader in the marching band. As a member of the Debate and Mock Trial teams, he participated in regional and state tournaments, and competed in the 2015 National Speech and Debate tournament. He also participated in the school jazz band and quiz bowl team and earned the rank of Eagle Scout as a Boy Scout.

At Dartmouth, Alex plans to pursue majors in Government and History as well as a minor in public policy. He is a staff news writer for The Dartmouth school newspaper and plays for the Dartmouth College Marching Band.

As a First-Year Fellow, Alex interned at the Brookings Institution where he worked as a research assistant for the Center on Regulation and Markets (CRM) in the Economic Studies program. He engaged in research, writing, editing, and data collection to support the CRM’s policy director, and Alex’s alumnus mentor, Aaron Klein ’98. Additionally, Alex aided Klein’s writing process by editing drafts and providing background research for his pending publications.

According to Alex, the most rewarding part of his fellowship experience was “working on subjects with which I had little background knowledge or familiarity at the beginning. As an aspiring Government and History major assigned to Brookings’ Economic Studies program, I often worked on topics that were either completely new to me or I had little in-depth prior knowledge of. Therefore, I not only learned a great deal of new information on economic policy, but I also learned the value of immersing myself in unfamiliar territory with the guidance of an expert in that field. I really believe that this skill of comfortably stepping out of my comfort zone will prove to be useful in both future academic and career pursuits, as there is always room to grow in terms of knowledge and experience.”

After graduation, Alex plans to attend law school or graduate school for political science and pursue a career in law, government, or politics.