After acting as a Research Assistant for CDDRL's Fisher Family Summer Fellows Program in the summer of 2023 and witnessing first-hand the energy and dedication of the folks at the Center, I was inspired to apply to the department’s honors program. Now, as a member of the 2024-25 honors cohort, I am grateful for the opportunity to further my research as well as engage with the faculty, staff, and fellow students of CDDRL throughout my last year at Stanford. As a wonderful bonus to the academic-year programming of the Fisher Family Honors Program, members of the senior thesis cohort also get to attend CDDRL Honors College in D.C. in the week leading up to the start of senior year. At the time of writing, the cohort is just returning from an exciting week at the capital, and I find myself reflecting on the beginnings of our thesis projects and the year that lies ahead. 

Touching down into Dulles, I was looking forward to engaging in fruitful conversations with my fellow cohort members as well as hearing from experts across a wide range of governmental and non-governmental organizations. Upon perusing our weekly schedule for Honors College, I was especially excited to see a visit to Freedom House programmed for later in the week.

On Thursday morning during Honors College, we had the privilege of visiting Freedom House, where we had a discussion and Q&A session with acting president Nicole Bibbins Sedaca. Among other topics, we discussed the state of democracy globally in one of the most significant years in terms of elections around the world, as well as the motivations and drivers behind the important work carried out by FH. In the Q&A that followed, we also had the chance to ask Bibbins Sedaca about topics of personal relevance to our theses. I took the opportunity to spark a conversation about the far-reaching tactics of transnational repression by autocratic regimes. I found the ensuing discussion not only interesting, but also insightful in thinking about some of the data and sources I might tap into when writing my thesis. 

One of the most valuable pieces of insight I gained was recognizing the importance of creating trustworthy contacts familiar with the topic you are studying with whom you can check in and collaborate as your project progresses.

~ Elizabeth Jerstad

As a double major in economics and philosophy, I’ve always sought to find a home for varied interests in economic policymaking, political analysis, philosophical inquiry, and international cooperation. CDDRL provides me with the home at Stanford to be able to pursue these interests.

Hence, the CDDRL Honors College gave me an opportunity to see how various aspects of my interests were being implemented by practitioners in government and the think-tank space. As students, we’ve spent the vast majority of our lives in an academic setting. Writing papers, producing research reports, and giving presentations has been a core part of our upbringing. The chance to briefly step outside of the world of academia and see how policies that can trace their roots to scholarly journals are being implemented in society was greatly insightful. Understanding the pushes and pulls that motivate decisions in the committee rooms on the Hill or in the boardrooms of think tanks allowed us to see how researchers can pursue their academic work in a way that maximizes the ultimate impact of their findings.

On Thursday, we visited the World Bank and met a series of economists and policy experts who gave us insights into the complex world of development. John Giles, an economist by training, showed us how the World Bank Group (WBG) engages in long-term economic research to assess the efficacy of various governmental policies and their impact on people’s livelihoods. Abigail Baca, a Stanford alumna (BA ‘01), revealed to us some of the WBG’s direct crisis management and development work in Latin America by understanding the WBG’s multipronged approach to helping alleviate the economic challenges of nations. From providing financial products to fuel development projects to delivering direct project-management expertise to plan and execute policies, the WBG has a variety of tools to help nations pursue better economic and social outcomes for their people. Finally, Lauren Culver spoke directly on the topic of energy transition and the resources needed to help nations pursue sustainable and reliable energy solutions. We saw how the WBG allocates its financial resources to help solve major world challenges while creating a strong partnership with nations to help them get on a path toward autonomy.

To future students: Honors College will go by in a flash. You meet experts in a variety of disciplines in a very short period of time. Hence, you’ll often leave sessions feeling the desire to delve deeper into particular issues. I’d recommend jotting dot notes of areas you’d like to research further when you’re back at Stanford. Also, maintaining a list of articles and books to read after the trip will come in handy.

~ Avinash Thakkar

Since taking Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law during my Freshman year, I have viewed the Fisher Family CDDRL Honors Program as the ideal culmination of my undergraduate career. Honors College, despite only lasting one week, always seemed a particularly indispensable part of the Program. Looking forward as I was to this glimpse into the policymaking world, I still found my expectations exceeded by the many meetings we had while in Washington. None exceeded my expectations more than our visit to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace with Thomas Carothers (Harvey V. Fineberg Chair for Democracy Studies; Director, Democracy, Conflict and Governance Program).

While providing occasional insights into his expertise in democratic systems, Mr. Carothers offered us a crash course in the think tank world. Besides describing the institutional foundations of the Carnegie Endowment, Mr. Carothers clarified the relationship between governments, think tanks, and academic institutions — broaching a longer discussion about how we, as honors students, might maximize our scholarly impact. In a similar vein of discussion, Mr. Carothers also laid out a helpful schema for the kinds of arguments and methodologies we might use in our theses if we were to seek out publication. For my own purposes, this discussion was particularly helpful. Given the relative (and, I’d argue, unjustified) obscurity of my thesis topic, I found that I benefited most from more generalized insider insights like these during Honors College.

As with all of our visits to government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and think tanks in Washington, the Carnegie Endowment also proved a helpful venue for networking. In our hour-long visit, our cohort managed to discuss a broad range of subjects related to think tanks and the academic process with Mr. Carothers, Carnegie Endowment President Tino Cuéllar, a visiting consultant from the Bosch Foundation, and a number of post-grad research assistants.

Broadly speaking, the CDDRL Honors College experience provided an important bridge between academic study and real-world application. It not only enriched my understanding of democracy, development, and the rule of law, but also gave me invaluable exposure to the career paths laid out ahead of me. As I move forward with my thesis, I am grateful for this experience and excited to create a meaningful scholarly output.

~ Adrian Feinberg