Class of 2020 First-Year Fellow: Peter Charalambous '20

Peter Charalambous '20 graduated from Chaminade High School in New York in 2016. At Chaminade, Peter led the Speech and Debate Team, served as editor-in-chief of Tarmac, his school's newspaper, and worked with children and adults with special needs. As a debater, he earned many regional awards, was one of the top Public Forum debaters in New York State, and received the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Great Communicator Scholarship.

At Dartmouth, Peter plans to major in Government and History and minor in Public Policy. He works as a staff writer for The Dartmouth, competes on the Mock Trial Team, and cooks for Students Fighting Hunger. He has also been an Aaron and Daniel Webster Scholar as well as the Build Chairman for Homecoming. Outside of the classroom, Peter loves the outdoors and is an avid carpenter.

As a First-Year Fellow, Peter interned at the American Petroleum Institute (API) under the mentorship of Rick Ranger ’74, who Peter worked closely with in the Upstream Committee of the API. The Upstream Committee primarily works on regulatory policy and legislative issues surrounding industry standards and practices. Peter’s responsibilities included conducting research on topics ranging from offshore seismic testing to the link between U.S. energy independence and national security. His research culminated in his drafting of two primers for the API: the first on oil and gas royalties and the second on national security. Furthermore, Peter was able to be involved in the process of creating a large environmental initiative between major oil and gas companies. He assisted one of the primary architects of the plan, attended a strategy and organizational meeting about the initiative, consulted on its logo, and attended meetings with stakeholders. This Environmental Partnership consists of an agreement between 26 oil and gas companies designed to cut methane pollution.

According to Peter, the most rewarding aspects of his fellowship was the substantive contributions he was able to make to the API through the projects he completed. “One of the most meaningful projects I worked on was a public comment regarding the Army Corp of Engineer’s proposed use of state reservoirs. In this public comment letter, which I researched, drafted, edited and finalized with a senior policy advisor, I was able to articulate an argument about federalism and Army Corp of Engineer’s overreach of state authority. I enjoyed being able to work on a comment letter from start to finish that the API will eventually publicly post.”

After graduation, Peter hopes to attend law school to either practice law or work in public policy.