TFAS recruits the best and brightest students from across the globe, so it is no surprise that many of them choose to participate in post-undergraduate programs, seeking to continue their education.

It is rare, however, when four alumni end up taking part in the same program, in the same city.

Since June 2009, Rocco Magni (B 07), Alanna Ream (A 07), Sterling Meyers (CSS 08) and Thomas Kraemer (B 06) have been participants in the Koch Associate Program at the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation in Arlington, Va.

The Koch Associate Program (KAP) is a job opportunity for professionals who are interested in becoming more effective at advancing liberty throughout their careers. KAP provides the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve the participants’ career goals while also placing each associate in a full-time position at a local non-profit organization where they work four days a week.

Meyers credits her time with TFAS as the reason she was interested in becoming a Koch Associate.

“Without coursework in economics and public policy that I completed during TFAS, I wouldn’t have realized an interest in learning more about free-market ideas. My semester at TFAS helped me to refine my career goals and our course readings prepared me for the projects and reading materials that we discuss each week through the Koch Associate Program,” she said.

A recent graduate from Cedarville University in Ohio, Meyers studied communications with a concentration on journalism and editing. Initially thinking that she wanted to be professional journalist, she came to Washington to attend The Fund’s Capital Semester in the spring of 2008 and interned with The Washington Times. 

However, she says that her semester in Washington changed her mind and helped her to decide which career path to take.

“I really enjoyed my internship and am so thankful for the experience, but I also began to realize that I did not want to pursue a full-time career in journalism,” said Meyers.

From here, she began to explore her interest in health policy as she remained in D.C. after her semester with TFAS and interned at a health care publication before finishing her senior year of college.

“Coming to D.C. in the spring of 2008 helped me to discover which career path I wanted to take, which in turn led me back to D.C. in the summer of 2009 when I began working at the health policy research organization the Galen Institute through the Koch Associate Program,” said Meyers. “Without TFAS, I wouldn’t have even known about the opportunities available at the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work at the Galen Institute.”