Senior's internship leads to live radio broadcasts

RELEASED: August 16, 2007

DANVILLE, KY—When Jake Hill '08 began his summer internship as a research associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) in Washington D.C., he never dreamed his work there would result in extraordinary opportunities to broadcast his ideas on live radio.

While working at COHA, Hill, a religion and history major from Owensboro, Ky., researched and wrote commentaries on free trade and its ethical, environmental, political and economic implications. His interest in these topics stemmed from a 2007 CentreTerm trip to Nicaragua with Associate Professor of Religion Rick Axtell’s class "Civil Society and Sustainable Development."

"After learning about the impact that several U.S. policies have on developing countries, I decided to look for an internship that would combine the ethics I study in religion courses with the political and economic knowledge I'd gained from other classes and from my time studying abroad," Hill said.

Not only has Hill combined his Centre studies with his internship experience, he also has been placed in the media spotlight with his latest article for COHA, "The Tail End of Free Trade: A Preliminary Evaluation of the Impact of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) on the Manufacturing Sector."

The articles Hill wrote for COHA are published on its Web site and distributed through an e-mail press release system. Two hours after Hill's latest article was released, the COHA office was contacted by producers of The David Glass Show, a program on KSRO Newstalk in Sonoma, Calif., for an August 8 interview. The radio show was looking for an expert to discuss the implications of NAFTA—and they found their expert in Hill.

"I knew my ideas and arguments inside and out, but while I was in my office waiting for the station to call, I couldn't help but feel that I was cramming for a test," Hill said. "Just as I would if I were at Centre, I had my notes laid out before me, and I was reading them back and forth, asking myself practice questions and rechecking my facts."

Hill was later contacted by KPCW, Salt Lake City's NPR station, to do another live interview for Midday Utah on August 13. Check out Hill's interview here.

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