In today’s highly competitive world, you don’t get many opportunities like the ones that Wabash grants you. This summer, I was fortunate enough to work in a one-on-one environment with political science professor Dr. Gelbman. During our work period, myself, along with my partner, Gavin Hill, worked to research and compile a database on lobbyists following the Lobbying Act of 1946. We combed through the Congressional records of late 1946 and 1947 compiling our data of who was registering under this act following its initiation.
This research taught us both that regulations and laws that the government passes are not always perfect. We learned through our research the flaws and loopholes that existed in this law and the repercussions from it. The research was not always fun, and often a grind, but as Wabash men we worked through it. This taught us invaluable lessons. We were able to utilize online tools such as ChatGPT and our own intuition to help our work along. The task we faced felt monumental at times as many of these Congressional records we were working through were quite large. However, we never gave up and worked hard to conquer our task.
On top of the work that we were doing, I was also coaching football at Brownsburg High School. Balancing the two jobs was challenging at times, but I worked my hardest to never let one interfere with the other.
Through my experience I was able to improve my reading and analyzing skills as Dr. Gelbman assigned us a reading every day to give us a better understanding of the time period and more research surrounding the Act. Along with this, my technology skills improved as we had to work to find a new way to get our work done in a more productive manner using technology.
Overall, this experience was incredible and I’m extremely thankful for Dr. Gelbman and Wabash for granting me this opportunity.
