When Adrian Feinberg ’25 and Noah Tan ’25 first moved into Donner in their freshman year, they had no idea their lives would intersect even post-graduation. However, after both they both received the prestigious James C. Gaither Junior Fellowship, the former dormmates will be living in Washington next year and completing research internships.
The year-long opportunity brings fellows to the nation’s capital as research assistants to contribute reports, books, op-eds and other projects for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s senior scholars. The fellowship is awarded to approximately 15 students each year.
This year’s cohort is composed of 16 students, including Feinberg and Tan, from universities across the country, including Dartmouth, Cornell and Amherst. Past fellows include Pulitzer Prize-winning author and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
As an alum of a military high school, Tan has placed public service at the forefront of his academic and professional journey. From talking to military mentors at his high school, Tan developed his interests in international security “from the ground up.”
“Getting a boots on the ground perspective was really impactful to me,” Tan said. Tan is majoring in international relations with a minor in music composition.
At Stanford, Tan’s conversations with his mentor Herb Lin, a senior research scholar at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), introduced scholarship as an alternative way to contribute to security. Tan hopes the fellowship will allow him to explore his interest in international trade and economic security.
For Feinberg, who is majoring in international relations, U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory was the “moment [he] gained real political consciousness” and sparked his interest in democracy. “I’ve had this lingering sense of dread that has propelled my interest in democratic decline and in the aftermath of democratic decline since [the election],” he said.
Feinberg took political science professor Kathryn Stoner’s “Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law” course, which deepened his academic interest in the topic. Stoner is also the director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), which Feinberg was an honors student in. His first visit to the Carnegie Endowment was part of a CDDRL honors college trip to Washington.
Thomas Carothers, the director of Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict and Governance Program, also influenced Feinberg’s decision to conduct research for the program as a Gaither fellow. After the fellowship, Feinberg hopes to pursue a graduate degree in history and is considering attending law school.
Both Feinberg and Tan are looking forward to being a part of the cohort.
“I really hope that socially, we get along as a cohort,” said Tan, who hopes that the fellowship will provide a “nice and easy transition into still having people to connect with while also in the workforce.”
On leaving the university setting, Feinberg thinks “it’s good to live in the real world,” but added that he hopes the fellowship and cohort maintain “the spirit of critical thinking and of intellectual pursuit” found on campus.