Whitney Moran, Zoe Eberstadt-Beattie, and Olivia Jenkins
This month, we are bringing you a special edition of the Alumni Spotlight featuring three Fellows from the 2021-2022 cohort who formed a strong friendship through their shared interests and passions. Zoe Eberstadt-Beattie joined the Fellows program from George Washington University, Olivia Jenkins from the University of Kentucky, and Whitney Moran from Long Island University.
Each of them wanted to participate in the Fellows program for different reasons. Olivia wanted to combine her academic background in business with her passion for politics. Zoe wanted to dedicate time to research and break away from the typical internships and fellowships her political science peers participated in. Whitney, a student-athlete, saw the Fellows program as an opportunity to utilize and deepen her writing skills while also using her degree in political science in a more tangible way.
All three women went into the Fellowship with an idea of what they might experience, but none of them imagined they would gain a lasting friendship. Their friendship is a testament to one of the greatest aspects of the Fellows program: the opportunity for students to connect with like-minded individuals of diverse backgrounds.
Zoe reinforced the idea, “One thing that I’ve thought a lot about is that the three of us are so different; Whitney’s from Colorado, Olivia’s from West Virginia, I’m from New York City, we all were raised so differently. We have very different beliefs and ideologies and everything else. There’s no scenario where we ever should have met and become friends, period, and CSPC just happened to create that. The only thing that we had in common was some desire towards service, and I think that’s the most beautiful thing.”
Their friendship blossomed during the in-person conference, which is a focal point of the Fellows program. Leading up to the conference, each woman participated in the Zoom meetings and worked on their research paper, but when it came time for the conference, they were hesitant. Olivia commented, “We all felt the same way; we were like, ‘Oh, what if we don’t make friends this is going to be so weird, we don’t know these people,’ and then we all left best friends.”
Not only did these women gain a friendship out of the Fellows program, but they also received an experience that helped them in their career paths. Whitney, who is now a Digital Fellow at Rational 360, elaborated that the research paper she wrote during the Fellowship about social media and data analytics, directly applies to the work she is currently doing and served as a jumping point during her interview process.
Olivia, an Account Executive at Push Digital Group, emphasized that her participation in the program allowed her to feel more comfortable in D.C. “The whole point is sponsoring someone that normally wouldn’t go to D.C. or do something like this and give them the opportunity to do so. So, I think for me, it just made me, career-wise, more comfortable moving to D.C. and getting the job that I have now.”
Their friendship and career experiences are not mutually exclusive. Zoe, a paralegal specialist in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, added that, even if all three have different jobs and work in different fields, they have each other to act as a soundboard for anything work-related. Each woman emphatically agreed that having a team of women you can trust is incredibly valuable. CSPC is thrilled that these women found each other through our program and look forward to what they will accomplish next. One thing is for sure: whatever they end up doing, they will always have their experience as Fellows and their friendship to guide them.