Class of 2020 First-Year Fellow: Brandon Nye '20

Brandon Nye ’20 graduated from Barrington High School in Barrington, Illinois. Brandon was a National Merit Scholarship Finalist and a National AP Scholar. Throughout high school, he served as Class Board President and worked with multiple non-profit organizations. His experience as co-captain of the Congressional Debate team inspired him to study economics and public policy upon arriving at Dartmouth.

On campus, Brandon is involved with Dartmouth Model United Nations and Divest Dartmouth, and he enjoys attending guest lectures and symposiums held by the Political Economy Project and the Rockefeller Center. The summer before arriving at Dartmouth, Brandon interned at ED-RED, an organization that researches education issues and lobbies elected officials on behalf of Illinois school districts.

As a First-Year Fellow, Brandon interned at the World Resources Institute under the mentorship of Sofia Farooq ’07. During his fellowship, Brandon worked directly with Sofia and the New Restoration Economy team which conducts research on private sector landscape restoration with the hope of attracting capital investment to that industry. He assisted the team in completing two reports, one on land restoration and the other on financing barriers, by conducting research, compiling and analyzing data, and drafting sections. Most significantly, Brandon was tasked with developing a communications strategy for the release of the business model report. This consisted of finding journalists and multimedia outlets that would be interested in the report as well as conventions and events where the team could reach its target audience.

According to Brandon, “Of all the rewarding aspects of the fellowship experience, the opportunity for me to immerse myself in a think tank environment and learn so much was particularly meaningful. I went into the internship with slight trepidation given that I had no functioning knowledge of environmental science or natural resources policy. My background being in economics, I was unsure how I would be able to help my supervisor. However, I soon came to realize the interplay between economics and sustaining natural resources. In just a few weeks, I was able to learn a lot about environmental issues, while also being able to apply and expand my understanding of economics.”

After graduation, Brandon plans to attend graduate school for law or economics and pursue a career in policy research and analysis.