Coe College recently issued the following announcement.
Alexa Eastburg ’21 may be a recent graduate, but she’s already experiencing major career firsts. She was the first Coe student to intern at the Common Sense Institute (CSI) and accepted her first full-time job offer with the organization as a research analyst.
It all started when fellow Kohawks Associate Professor of Economics Drew Westberg ’05 and CEO and President of Common Sense Institute and Coe Trustee Kristin Strohm ’05 turned Alexa’s practicum requirement into a career-defining experience. Drew introduced Alexa to Kristin who wanted to begin hosting Coe student interns at CSI, a nonpartisan fiscal and economic research organization based in Colorado.
“I [interned] and really enjoyed the work that I did,” Alexa said. “I stayed in contact with Kristin and Chris Brown, vice president of policy and research. They reached out to me when they had an opening and I applied, had more interviews and then I got the job!”
Alexa majored in economics, business administration and managerial accounting. She was heavily involved with on-campus organizations such as Delta Delta Delta, Women in the Lindsey Lounge, Mortar Board, Student Financial Services, Cedar Rapids Dance Marathon and the Birkey Investment Fund.
Alexa’s passion for economics started in high school, but after attending one of Drew’s Principles of Macroeconomics classes during a campus visit, she was certain she wanted to pursue economics at Coe.
“I really just liked the way that he taught and the information that he was presenting at the time. Drew definitely had a big part in my decision to continue with economics. It deals with real world problems and current issues, so just being involved with what’s actually going on right now is what drove my decision to continue to do economics research,” Alexa said.
One of Alexa’s current projects at CSI represents the most rewarding part of her job. She is building connections, translating comprehensive information and creating reports on ballot initiatives and propositions that Coloradoans will be voting on in their upcoming election.
“[My data is] easy to understand for other people so they really know what they’re voting on. It takes a lot of work to make the reports, but knowing that it’s helping people in the future is definitely rewarding,” she said.
Alexa recently was accepted into the Civic Leadership Engagement Roadmap program (CLER), which mentors women across the country to become future civic leaders with local and federal government. With only 30 women selected into the program, Alexa is building relationships to someday start her own company or think tank.
“I’m hoping that through my work as a research analyst at CSI and through the connections I’ve made at the CLER program that I can continue to build connections but also gain more resources and knowledge to better my economic research,” she said.
Original source can be found here.
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