{"id":231,"date":"2026-10-07T14:46:40","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T18:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/?p=231"},"modified":"2026-10-07T15:50:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T19:50:22","slug":"three-months-four-continents-and-invaluable-experiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/2026\/10\/07\/three-months-four-continents-and-invaluable-experiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Months, Four Continents, and Invaluable Experiences"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dakota Stacy (right) with Effat Jahan Efa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dakota Stacy \u201927<\/strong>, like many Little Giants, has a passion for travel and liberal learning\u2014so he\u2019s all about getting outside the classroom, going far beyond his studies as a philosophy and economics major. But this past summer, he managed to easily surpass these aspirations\u2014visiting six countries across three continents, circumnavigating the Northern Hemisphere between Europe, North Africa, and Japan before returning to Wabash. And all this came after spending two months in the nation\u2019s capital, learning about global fiscal policy with a leading think tank.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dakota\u2019s summer break began in May at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. The atmosphere, he says, \u201cwas very entrepreneurial. I could do what I wanted to if it made sense.\u201d A former study abroad experience in Japan was a logical way to leverage his enthusiasm for that part of the world. \u201cI did three projects on Japanese fiscal debts,\u201d he notes. In his work, he critiqued Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) by analyzing the country\u2019s massive public debt, the largest per capita in the world, which sits at a gross liability of 270% of GDP. That alone might sound alarming, but he also discovered that the country \u201cincentivizes the formation of an ice cream cartel that fixes prices.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Not too distracted by the idea of debt-related dairy desserts, Dakota worked assiduously under the supervision of Veronique de Rugy, George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center. There he completed several related pieces posted on <\/span>The Unseen and The Unsaid<\/span><\/i>, \u201ca newsletter about economic freedom, fiscal policy, and common-sense policy reforms,\u201d an outlet that is seen throughout the public-policy world and halls of Capitol Hill.<\/span><\/p>\n

After his deep dive into the Japanese economy, Dakota continues, \u201cI started to get a little bit more experimental towards the second half of the internship. So I did stuff about Russia… And I also did a project about birds.\u201d What do fowl have to do with classical liberalism? <\/span>In his piece at <\/span>Free Exchange<\/span><\/i><\/a>, Dakota explored how birding serves as a massive, global conservation effort that relies on a “triad” of governments, nonprofits, and the free market.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He focused on how much civil society contributes to environmental protection: \u201cUnlike hunting (arguably the second biggest), birding is where conservation is the passive activity itself. Birdwatchers collect data for researchers; researchers make discoveries, and these findings can contribute to protecting land.\u201d Many casual bird watchers do exactly this even in using the most popular bird apps, like eBird and Merlin Bird ID, generating massive databases for ornithologists at a fraction of the cost of traditional environmental tracking. And it all builds to support an international ecosystem: \u201cYour existence (food) depends on birds… Hummingbirds, sunbirds, and honeycreepers pollinate a plethora of flowers. You also would not have coffee were it not for birds.”<\/span><\/p>\n

After two months in muggy D.C., a summer that would have been brag-worthy enough, Dakota flew to Europe to participate in The Stephenson Institute\u2019s summer seminar in Prague, stopping for a day en route to see Paris. He woke up at 4:00 a.m. on his first morning to walk around before the seminar started, seeing the historic, old-world streets and castle at first light. After one week of enjoying an exploration of classical-liberal themes with several dozen students, many Wabash gentlemen among them, he departed for Egypt for a brief vacation with his father and brother to see Cairo and the pyramids. \u201cIt was like 110 every day,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it was great because I mean there’s like nobody there when it’s hot. So all the temples and monuments had very few people,\u201d almost like a private tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaving his family, Dakota headed east to attend the 40th Liberty International World Conference, this year in Nepal. But on the way, of course, Dakota managed a one-day stop in the crossroads of Istanbul, Turkey. \u201cMy favorite thing was called the Blue Mosque. It was built in the 17th century to imitate the Hagia Sophia,\u201d he says. Then, perhaps well-timed for transiting between programs focused on markets, he visited the legendary bazaar: \u201cIt’s this street with like 100,000 different items. And it just keeps going and going\u2026 so many different people doing lots of different things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kathmandu (photo by Dakota Stacy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arriving in Kathmandu, Dakota met people from all over the world for an exploration of classical liberal themes\u2014including market reforms in Nepal, longevity and biotechnology, and Adam Smith. Encountering Dr. Hiroshi Yoshida, a Japanese tax expert and public accounting specialist, Dakota was able to present the fiscal analysis he was working on in D.C.: \u201cWhen someone later came up and asked Hiroshi a question about the yen situation, he had me pull out my article to explain the problem.\u201d Fortunately, there was also time for more than academic panels, as he had a chance to explore the authentic Kathmandu outside the conference halls.<\/span><\/p>\n

During a night trip to the Hindu \u201cgod of animals\u201d temple, Dakota reports on \u201cthings I could never have imagined.\u201d In his own words:<\/span><\/p>\n

Ashes of active open air cremations covered the starry sky, mourning families sent deceased loved ones down the river which separates \u201cpreserver from destroyer,\u201d and all the while a fire performance ritual took place on the highest peak in the riverbank. Given the temple\u2019s name, you can bet animals too were plenty: monkeys, owls, cows, dogs, cats, etc. I also stepped on cow waste by accident and to my surprise, was told I was very lucky and hugged by my Nepali friend and nearby strangers.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

It might have been the perfect end of the summer, but a short flight east brought Dakota again to Japan, literally bookending a journey across so many topics. Seeing friends there, he reflected on his time. \u201cThank you all again so much for this opportunity,\u201d he tells The Stephenson Institute. \u201cIt was not just a marvelous one, but truly life-changing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dakota Stacy \u201927, like many Little Giants, has a passion for travel and liberal learning\u2014so he\u2019s all about getting outside the classroom, going far beyond his studies as a philosophy and economics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":15,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-internships"],"acf":[],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/49\/2026\/10\/stacy-nepal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/stephenson-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}