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Max Schnidman’s ’14 academic and extracurricular pursuits during his Hamilton tenure demonstrate a fascination with economic research: he participated in the annual Fed Challenge; he interned for the Department of State's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs as part of Hamilton’s Washington D.C. Program; and finally, he culminated his academic career by writing senior theses on the philosophy of economics and another on the economics of happiness. Fittingly, Schnidman will join the Research Fellows Program at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to work as an economic assistant this August.

Jonah Feitelson ’15, with funding from the Summer Internship Support Fund established in 2005 by John G. Rice ’78, is interning this summer at the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) in New York City. NESRI is a non-profit organization that promotes movements for what it deems essential social and economic rights, including education, healthcare and housing.

For his 2014 Levitt Summer Research Fellowship Grant, Adam Pfander ’16 is working with Professor of Economics Paul Hagstrom to examine the employment opportunities of immigrants during the “Great Recession” of 2007-08.  Pfander laid out three main goals for his project titled “Foreign-Born Labor Markets in Recession.”

This summer Bennett Glace ’16, the recipient of an Emerson Grant, is examining ‘trash’ cinema with Visiting Professor of Art History Scott MacDonald in their project titled “Another Man’s Treasure: An Exploration of ‘Trash’ Cinema.”

Lainie Smith ’16, through the Digital Humanities Initiative (DHi), is examining meditation in her summer research project titled “Investigating the Growth and Adaptations of the Practice of Meditation” with Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Abhishek Amar.

Connor Miyamoto ’15, with support from the Scott Stephen Morris ’86 Internship Fund, is pursuing his interest in law this summer by interning at the Ventura County Public Defender’s Office in California. Public defenders traditionally represent individuals who cannot otherwise afford an attorney. As Miyamoto noted, “The attorneys at the Ventura County Public Defender’s Office share a common goal: to assist [impoverished] members of the Ventura County community by providing the most sound legal representation as possible.”

Shannon O’Brien ’15, the recipient of an Emerson Grant, is spending her summer researching food justice organizations under the guidance of Associate Professor of Africana Studies Angel David Nieves. In her project titled “Examining the Community-Building Efforts of Food Justice Organizations in Philadelphia,” O’Brien hopes to determine how and to what extent food justice organizations actually contribute to the sense of community in Philadelphia.

Dozens of economists, psychologists and other wellbeing and happiness scholars hit the Hill this week as Hamilton College hosted the second annual International Wellbeing and Public Policy Conference, sponsored by the International Journal of Wellbeing. The conference, from June 10-12, drew many of the world’s leading experts on happiness and wellbeing studies, including Hamilton alumnus  Arthur Stone ’74, Ph.D., who delivered one of the keynote speeches.

Isabella Schoning ’16 has been chosen as a recipient of the Gilman International Scholarship Program award. The award will fund Schoning’s fall 2014 semester abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia, through the Bard-Smolny Program.