AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE (AEI)
Brian Jay Rose

A sophomore at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Brian Jay Rose was concentrating in economics and medicine when he applied to the Washington Internship Program in late February of 2006; he will graduate in 2008 with a Masters degree as well as a Bachelors. In the past, Brian was an independent researcher at the University of California in San Francisco where he did work on Parkinson’s Disease in zebra-fish, and the abstracts and papers he wrote were submitted to medical journals. He was also a sales and marketing intern at Uptilt, Inc. in Mento Park, California. At Harvard, Brian maintained high grades even though he belonged to Lightway Crew; as a national champion, he made the college travel team and practiced fifteen to eighteen hours a week. In addition, Brian counseled underprivileged teens at the Mission Hill After-School Program another fifteen hours per week, took part in the  Bureau of Study Council On-Call Tutor, and tutored Harvard students in multi-variable calculus. (Brian raised the grades of every student he helped based on first and second-semester midterms). Previously, Brian was president of the Model United Nations Club through San Francisco University, school newspaper editor, a teaching assistant for Outdoor Educational Program, captain of the Swim Team, and a teaching assistant at Harvard University’s Freshmen Outdoor Program. Brian traveled to Greece and England; as part of the San Francisco Boys Choir he also went to France, and in Ecuador Brian toured the Amazon rainforest and nearby Galapagos Islands where Charles Darwin did much of his pioneering work on evolution. Brian speaks some French. 

Two months after applying to WIP, Brian was placed at the American Enterprise Institute as well as the White House where he was asked to serve as a liaison between the Executive Office of the President and the United States Department of Commerce. Although the second offer was quite an honor, Brian didn’t support what he considered irresponsible financial policies by the Bush Administration. Brian’s other choice, the American Enterprise Institute, is generally considered a neo-conservative institution, but the Washington Internship Program encouraged Brian to accept an internship at AEI because this think-tank enjoys a reputation for financial excellence that goes beyond partisan politics. Brian was later pleased that he followed this advice because throughout the summer he was able to speak freely about his own commitments during a challenging internship, which led directly to a paid position that Brian was subsequently offered at Harvard University with a famous liberal economist who served on President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors, as part of a group that helped First Lady Hillary Clinton on her healthcare study, and as an economic advisor to both John Kerry and Bill Bradley – illustrating that the finest economists advise both Democrats and Republicans. Brian’s work at AEI on healthcare, Medicare, and economic projections prepared him to continue this research back on campus in the fall.           

The Washington Internship Program counseled Brian on which internships to pursue among the thousands of prestigious opportunities possible for the finest students from Ivy League colleges, and then WIP informed intern coordinators at various institutions and agencies about Brian’s extraordinary talents. Brian first resided at Iris House, a fully-furnished home in D.C. run by WIP, and later he moved to WIP’s International House. These two exquisite residences, located near one another and 16th Street, N.W., allowed Brian to take the bus to work on 17th Street, N.W. just blocks from the White House internship he politely declined. Below is Brian’s description of his internship at AEI that lasted from June through August, after which he went to Spain with family. Brian was a popular student who was well-liked by peers and staff members alike.

“At the American Enterprise Institute I assisted three scholars with a research project on healthcare, which combined my educational training in economics and pre-med. As one of fifty interns selected in 2006 for a summer internship at AEI, I was thrilled to be given much more responsibility than other students there. The forty-page report I helped draft is now under review by my supervisor, who plans to submit it for publication – under my byline and the names of others who worked on the article – in the journal Health Affairs. My piece is a comparative study of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Medicare, and drug treatment within the United States versus similar agencies – like ENEA – within the European Union. I examined the fact that medical substances and devices usually take at least a year longer to be approved in America compared to the E.U. even though the incidence of problems with drugs and devices is no higher in Europe than in the U.S. (In Europe, new drugs were approved faster 80 percent of the time while in the U.S. such medicines were accepted sooner about 20 percent of the time.) The approval process for pharmaceuticals in the United States is much more expensive because the government requires manufacturer to prove both efficacy and safety. Devices are less expensive to test than new medicines, and some ‘horror stories’ involve useful medications that were not approved for up to fifteen years. I was given much freedom I pursuing this work. My supervisor was in the office about two days a week, and the rest of the time I was given guidance by his research assistant. I spent about 85 percent of my summer working on this project.”

“I also enjoyed attending conferences sponsored by AEI, including a Summit on Iraq. I heard Secretary of Homeland Security Chertoff speak about strategies for prosecuting individuals who enter the U.S. illegally and companies that hire them while relaxing border control. Every Thursday AEI scholars talked about their research exclusively to the interns. Another tradition I appreciated at AEI was giving wonderful books (for free) to interns. I went home with about thirty books, and so far I finished reading ten of them.”

“My supervisor delivered a lecture on new cost estimates associated with Medicare, and I was asked to make projections in this regard through 2070. The experience I gained and the letter of recommendation AEI wrote for me resulted in a paid position I got upon returning to Harvard in the fall where I now work ten to fifteen hours a week for a renown economist for whom I project financial models for the future of Medicare. Ironically, for a time I considered staying in Cambridge for the summer and doing research at Harvard, but the director of the Washington Internship Program encouraged me to get some experience at an economic think-tank in our nation’s capital, and she correctly predicted that such work would lead to better offers from Harvard once I returned with a placement at AEI on my resume and a glowing recommendation.”


Brian Rose (second from right) with other WIP interns: Bethany Reese, Suzi Oh, and Rachel Toler (plus two more friends) – at Silver Spring Metro Station

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