Class of 2021 First-Year Fellow: Levi Roseman

As a First-Year Fellow, Levi Roseman ’21 interned at the U.S. Department of Education under the mentorship of Lauren Kennedy ’02. The following in an excerpt from his final report.

This summer, I worked in the U.S. Department of Education. In broad terms, the Department of Education is responsible for implementing all executive education policy on a national level. More specifically, I worked in the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE), and, even more specifically, I worked in the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Higher Education Programs (HEP). HEP is responsible for implementing all the programs (mostly grants) pertaining to higher education that congress authorizes the Department to run. These programs include many heavily funded grants like the TRIO programs, GEAR-UP, Upward-Bound, etc.

I was responsible for managing any projects the Deputy Assistant Secretary sent my way. For the majority of my time in the office, this encompassed a large project in which I read the authorizing statutes for all programs my office was responsible for running, which is about thirty- eight in all. I scoured these statutes for every requirement the office is responsible for meeting. I then transferred the requirements to an Excel spreadsheet that outlined the requirement, notes regarding it, and a cell where someone can mark whether or not the office is compliant with that specific requirement. I then inserted formulas into each sheet to total the number of requirements for each program and the percentage of requirements with which the office is actually compliant. This project took all eight weeks to complete, but I did work on a couple other projects. One of these involved helping one staffer reformat a data collection sheet and the corresponding Excel sheets for a grant program relating to Historically Black Graduate Institutions.

To those who devoted their time, money, talent, resources, and energy to make First-Year Fellows a reality, I cannot thank you enough. Throughout the nearly year-long process of preparing for, applying for, and participating in this fellowship, I have been constantly amazed at the level of coordination that defines the First-Year Fellows program. From the time I was merely a prospective Dartmouth student, I heard of the First-Year Fellows program and what a worthwhile and important experience it is. Having now participated in the program, I can say that the program’s extraordinary reputation is, if anything, understated. I learned countless skills in communication, professionalism, networking, and policy making both in preparation for and as a result of my internship. Thanks to the generosity and devotion of many people, my time in the First-Year Fellows program is time I will cherish and use a launching pad to further my career and my potential to make a difference in the world.