Rocky First-Year Fellows and Board Convene in Washington, D.C.

The Rockefeller Center's First-Year Fellows Program, which has placed nearly 300 undergraduate students in summer internships with Washington, D.C.-based Dartmouth alumni mentors since 2007, launched its newest 20-student cohort into their Fellowships in late June. 

The Fellowship began with a week of pre-internship Civic Skills Training around the city, including a studio meeting with CNN anchor Jake Tapper '91, a visit to the Floor of the U.S. House of Representatives via a connection in the office of U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and meetings with high-level staff in the offices of U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, and U.S. Rep. (and former Rocky and Government faculty member) Maggie Goodlander, D-NH, before students' two-month internships in the nation's capital began. 

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The First-Year Fellows with Jake Tapper '91 at CNN's Washington D.C. studio.

Students also met with officials at the Department of Justice, Congressional Budget Office, Court of Federal Claims, and Solar Energy Industries Association, among a large range of alumni with expertise across policy areas.

"It was a remarkable week of training for our students, one made possible by our generous alumni," says Assistant Director Bob Coates, who co-led the week of Civic Skills Training with Program Officers Taylor Pichette and Madison Piel, all three of whom spent significant time working in Washington, D.C. before joining the Rockefeller Center.

For the first time ever, and coinciding with the First-Year Fellows' arrival into the city, Rocky also held the Spring meeting of its Board of Visitors in Washington, D.C.

"Rocky's deep connections to Washington, D.C. were on full display during our First-Year Fellows' Civic Skills Training and Board of Visitors Meeting," says Associate Director Herschel Nachlis, who is faculty director of the Fellowship Program.  Rocky's Board Chair, David Duckenfield '88, a former State Department official who began his tenure as Chair on July 1, 2024, also grew up in the nation's capital, and the Board received updates from Dartmouth's Director of Federal Relations, Emily Burlij, and Rocky Director Jason Barabas '93.

At a reception for the Fellows, hosted at Penta Group by CEO Matt McDonald '00, Board, D.C.-based alumni, and incoming Dartmouth students also got the chance to network with alumni contacts around the city.  "The combined Fellows and Board meetings provided our students and alumni a remarkable opportunity to deeply engage with one another in a professional setting in our nation's capital" says Executive Director Anna Mahoney.

The Board also recognized the contributions of longtime Board Members Bruce Rich '70, Michael Rockefeller '86, Ann Kappler '79, and Alvaro Saralegiu '78, who rotated off the Board, and will welcome new Board Members David Anders '91, Patrick Martin '73 TU'74 P'07 THP'08, Howard Morse '81 P'15, Michael Pyle '00, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Jr. '86, and Britni Jackson '09 during its Fall meeting.