My internship for 2024 saw me doing Economic Policy Research for the Austrian Economic Center in the renowned city of Vienna Austria. During this time, I was able to
travel, make new friends, and enjoy all of the luxuries that go along with being a sub-21- year-old American college student. However, while all of that was amazing the more important takeaways came from the work that I did and the challenge of having to operate as a grown man in a foreign country.
Coming into this internship, I gave the idea of pursuing economics grad school much more faith than I do today. So, when the opportunity to do research for a summer crossed my path, I knew I had to take it. While there is absolutely nothing I regret from the work I did there, I did discover that I do not want to spend the next four to seven years doing research. To clarify, I got to do economic policy research for the Vice Chancellor of the Austrian Central Bank. This is not a position that I took lightly and is an opportunity that I will be forever grateful for having been given to me (particular thanks to the donors at the Stephenson Institute, Dr. D’Amico, and the lovely career services staS at Wabash. With that being said, I believe figuring out what you don’t want to do is the best way to draw conclusions about what you do, so there is an extra element of appreciation for this role that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
Living alone on the other hand presented an entirely different set of challenges. I like many college students my age, can go home over the summer and essentially operate as a high schooler again. Meals cooked for me nightly, security of a roof over my head, and a loving family a three-second walk across a hallway away. This was not the case in Vienna. I shared a studio apartment with Preston, a close friend and pledge brother of mine, and was a fifteen-hour flight away from my real life. The lessons I gained from trying to navigate responsible adulthood with Preston are some of the most valuable I have gained in my life thus far and will carry those with me both this upcoming summer and beyond.
